One of the things that D.C. pundits like myself say about the persistent healthcare debate is that there’s no silver bullet. The myriad forces involved in delivering us miracle 21st-century treatments have woven a Byzantine network of red tape that makes those treatments unaffordable. There’s no one simple fix that can suddenly make healthcare good, fast, and cheap.

Of course that’s not to say we just shrug our legislative shoulders and give up. There’s more than enough inertia in Washington without us surrendering to the status quo of devastatingly expensive care and impossible bureaucracy. Which is why it’s been so refreshing to see the Safe Step Act. Introduced by Republican Rep. Rick Allen (GA-12), the bill promises a pro-market solution that allows patients to receive the treatment they need faster and less expensively without middleman interference.

Here’s the problem. So-called step therapy requires patients to try a cheaper drug (or drugs) first before their insurer will cover the one originally prescribed by their provider. Medications are grouped into “steps” that patients need to essentially walk up: before the insurer will pay for step 3 drugs, patients have to first cross steps 1 and 2 – even if the doctor said, “Hey, you need step 3 now!”

In principle,........

© Townhall