New York State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried has introduced a bill that would place severe restrictions on those who sell prescription drugs.
The goal, no doubt, is to appear tough with drug companies. Given the rising cost of health care, this is politically understandable. Unfortunately, the proposed bill would only make doctors' jobs harder -- depriving them of vital information and undermining their ability to make the best clinical decisions possible. Ultimately, patients will pay the price.
Read the full op-ed from today’s edition of the Albany Times-Union
This back-handed attempt to prohibit off-label prescribing is nothing more than yet another inappropriate government intervention into the doctor's office. Gottfried's bill may make for good political theater, but the grandstanding ignores a fundamental truth: Doctors, not bureaucrats, know their patients' medical needs best.