ONE OF the smartest steps Massachusetts has taken to get health costs under control was the 2008 ban on the gifts and free dinners showered on doctors by pharmaceutical companies eager to market pricy new medications. Now a bill pending in the state House of Representatives would repeal that ban — as well as a requirement that drug companies disclose payments they make to doctors for research or other services. Representatives should strike these provisions from an 86-page economic-development package that was unveiled yesterday.
Limiting the drug industry’s largess to doctors and hospitals holds down costs in two ways. It makes a dent in the $7 billion the industry spends annually on marketing to physicians, which over time should result in lower price tags on medications. Also, it makes it more difficult for pharmaceutical companies to persuade doctors to make greater use of new, higher-cost drugs that often have little or no advantage over existing, lower-cost medications.
Representative Brian Dempsey, House chairman of the Economic Development Committee, said repeal of the gifts ban is a response to restaurant owners and others who believe the 2008 law has hurt business. But repealing a wise policy is a misguided way to stimulate the hospitality business.
