(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) President Tom Schatz issued the following statement in response to reports that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are considering implementation of “most favored nation” (MFN) price controls through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation:

“We are deeply concerned that HHS and CMS are reported to be entertaining the use of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to force government price controls on the American people.  CMMI has failed to achieve its mission to lower costs and improve care, and as 63 federal and state groups wrote to President Trump on August 11, 2020, MFN “would have disastrous consequences to the economy and healthcare system.” Expanding the use of CMMI’s demonstrably wasteful models to centrally plan drug pricing is laughable. 

“The American people do not support government-run healthcare, central planning, and price controls.  Furthermore, taxpayers do not need more unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats experimenting with healthcare.  Innovation comes from the private sector, not bureaucrats.  The use of CMMI to dictate prices is yet another reason Congress must pull the plug on this disastrous experimentation in healthcare policymaking.

“On September 16, 2025, CCAGW launched a new campaign to highlight waste and mismanagement and hold CMMI responsible for its lack of transparency, unchecked spending, and failed experimentation with Americans’ healthcare.  Moving forward with price controls would be another example of why CCAGW’s initiative is essential to taking control of healthcare decisions away from bureaucrats and giving it back to patients.”

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The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.