Trump announced a vague proposal that broke a key campaign promise that is nothing more than a sham plan to lower prescription drug prices.
Video of Trump:
Trump announces sham proposal to lower prices on prescription drugs. pic.twitter.com/ihT5ow6DDq
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) May 11, 2018
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Trump said, “Today my administration is launching the most sweeping action in history to lower the price of prescription drugs for the American people. We have wanted to be doing this, we have been working on it right from day one. It has been a complicated process but not too complicated. And today it is happening. We will have tougher negotiation, more competition, and much lower prices at the pharmacy counter and it will start to take effect very soon. My administration has already taken significant steps to get drug prices under control. We reformed the drug discount program for safety net hospitals, to save senior citizens hundreds of millions of dollars on drugs this year we’re also increasing competition and reducing regulatory burdens so drugs can be gotten to the market quicker and cheaper. We’re very much eliminating the middlemen, the middlemen became very, very rich.”
Trump is trying to lower the cost of prescription drugs by eliminating testing and safety regulations.
House and Senate Democrats responded to Trump’s plan in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, “Under the Trump administration, the 20 most prescribed drugs under Medicare Part D have seen an average annual 12 percent price hike, while 12 of those drugs saw price hikes of over 50 percent, and the remaining six drugs saw price hikes of 100 percent. Despite harsh campaign rhetoric denouncing the pharmaceutical industry, President Trump has done nothing but line the pockets of pharmaceutical company executives through his tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations while drug prices continued to climb. Five of the largest pharmaceutical companies have invested their savings from the tax windfall on $45 billion in new stock buyback programs to benefit shareholders.”
As The National Committee To Preserve Social Security and Medicare said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, the Trump plan benefits Big Pharma, not seniors, “If early reporting is correct, President Trump intends to break a major campaign promise to seniors today by failing to call for Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices with Big Pharma. While the President’s new plan to curtail drug costs reportedly contains some productive measures – including requiring insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) who act as middlemen to pass manufacturer rebates onto consumers and limiting reimbursement for Medicare outpatient drugs beyond the rate of inflation – the failure to empower Medicare to bring prescription prices down is a glaring omission, but not a surprising one. How can we expect an honest policy proposal from an administration that embraces “pay-to-play” strategies with giant pharmaceutical companies? Trump’s new proposal will ring hollow with America’s seniors, who understand the only way they will see the prices they pay at the pharmacy come down is for the president and Congress to break the choke-hold that Big Pharma has on our country’s drug pricing policies – and pass legislation that gives Medicare full control over negotiation. – Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.”
The Trump plan is a scam to boost the profits of Big Pharma. When Trump announces a new plan, the question should always be who benefits? The answer, when it comes to Donald Trump will almost always be, not the American people.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
