Now that the 2020 presidential race is underway, Donald Trump wants to make good on a 2016 campaign promise: lower the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs. But there are a lot of people who are skeptical of the plan, to say the least.
In a wide-ranging Q&A session with reporters outside the White House Friday, the president said he plans to use an executive order to force a “favored nations clause” on Big Pharma.
Such a clause, he said, would let Americans pay the same as “whatever the lowest nation’s price is.”
Trump noted that currently, some countries’ drug prices can be “60-70 percent” lower than U.S. prices, and asked:
“Why should other nations — like Canada — but why should other nations pay much less than us? They’ve taken advantage of the system for a long time, pharma.”
“There are a lot of details that are unclear, such as how the order would be enforced and how much of a difference it would make,” says Axios. “But it’s a sign that Trump wants to use his executive authority to move ahead on his campaign promise to lower drug prices — and a bad sign for drug companies.”
The Trump administration is also trying to “shed more light on the health-care industry’s opaque pricing practices by requiring Big Pharma to include drug prices in TV ads starting this month,” says CNBC.
“House Democrats have proposed letting the federal government negotiate prices with drugmakers directly, like other countries. The Medicare program cannot negotiate drug prices under current law….
“However, opposition is strong among Republicans who say they want prices negotiated in a free market,” CNBC says.
