The last few months have seen a whirlwind of attacks on tobacco users. From an April proposal to ban the popular menthol cigarette flavor and prohibit all cigar flavors other than traditional tobacco to a plan to eliminate nearly all nicotine in conventional cigarettes sold in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) has been busy making a flurry of announcements. However, it was the FDA’s […]
Health
House Bill Expands Telehealth Access
More than a third of Americans live in an area with a shortage of healthcare professionals. For these 122 million people, that shortage can mean longer wait times and delayed access to essential care. For patients living in rural areas, attending in-person health appointments can also require them to pay steep travel costs while sacrificing […]
Real Clear Health: FTC May Finally Bring Down the Hammer on PBMs
Amidst rising prescription drug prices, consumers may finally be getting some much-needed relief if the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) follows through with a recent pledge to investigate Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) for anticompetitive practices. You can read this commentary in Real Clear Health.
In Banning Juul, FDA Fails to Follow the Science
Over the past year, the Food and Drug Administration has taken an increasingly aggressive and anti-scientific approach to regulating electronic cigarettes, despite empirical evidence showing they are far safer than traditional combustible products. The agency’s approach became very apparent when it ordered JUUL, a manufacturer of popular electronic cigarettes, to remove their products from the […]
Study Links PBMs to Medicine Overpayments
Much has been written about the role Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) play in driving up the cost of prescription brand named drugs. However, far less has been written about how PBMs current business practices lead U.S. consumers, employers, and the government to pay too much for what should be low-cost drugs. Now a new paper, […]
FDA’s Decision to Ban JUUL E-cigarettes Will Jeopardize American Lives
Today’s announcement by the FDA that JUUL’s vaping products will be ordered off the market is another stark reminder of the agency’s forgotten mission to protect the health of American consumers. The scientific evidence clearly shows that e-cigarettes and vaping products, while not totally safe, are 95% safer than combustible tobacco products and twice as […]
Menthol Bans Will Spell Financial Hit to State Coffers
Back in March, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it was planning “to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and prohibit all characterizing flavors (other than tobacco) in cigars.” The proposal is rooted in the agency’s desire to “significantly reduce disease and death from the use of combusted tobacco products, the leading […]
Policymakers Should Care about Reducing Health Risks
Every day thousands of smokers make a conscious decision to improve their health by dumping harmful combustible tobacco products and turning to electronic cigarettes and vaping products. Yet, despite this growing positive trend, federal regulators at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have taken increasingly aggressive regulatory steps to make it harder for smokers to […]
A Menthol Flavor Ban Would Have Unintended Consequences
Most Americans will have likely heard about the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) new plan to prohibit all menthol cigarettes and flavored cigar sales in the United States. The plan, which is already being described as the biggest cigarette crackdown since the 1960s, would effectively ban one of the most popular tobacco items on the […]
ACI Files Comments with the FDA Regarding a Proposed Tobacco Standard That Would Prohibit Menthol Products
Dear Sir or Madam, My name is Edward Longe, and I am a Policy Manager at the American Consumer Institute. The American Consumer Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-partisan, educational, and public policy research organization with the mission to identify, analyze, and project the interests of consumers in selected legislative and rulemaking proceedings. We share the […]