Trump has missed his chance for boldness on reducing prescription drug prices and his presidency continues to be the worst for health care in modern times, wrote Donald Trump in USA Today . Slavitt , who ran Medicare , Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act during the Obama administration, said the President had given away big bargaining chips on the issue “in exchange for nothing”. There were high expectations for Trump after he ran a presidential campaign in which he accused pharmaceutical firms of “getting away with murder” with unchecked drug costs. As many as one in four Americans say they struggle to afford medication and 92% say the federal government should use its negotiating power to cut drug prices for Medicare . As a candidate, Trump promised to “negotiate like crazy” to save taxpayers $300 billion a year. But prices of more than 2,400 drugs already on the market have risen by at least double digits since he became president and there has been little action on soaring costs. This was supposed to change with Trump ’s big speech on 11 May but that and his American Patients First blueprint turned out to be a huge relief for Big Pharma , wrote Slavitt . There were no calls for the four big campaign promises that would have had the largest impact on consumers – negotiation and drug re-importation and drugmaker stocks rallied after his speech. Drugs companies have long claimed that cures for diseases such as cancer and other innovations are dependent on money they make as the result of higher prices. But this argument ignores the fact that prices often continue to rise long after a drug has been on the market. The Trump administration now says the government cannot effectively negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry, but this protects profits and hurts consumers, said Slavitt . The former Obama staffer added there were some encouraging plans in details released by Big Pharma that could work over the longer term. These included drugmakers disclosing list prices on TV ads, encouraging biosimilars (generic drugs) and possible changes to how drugs administered by physicians are paid for. But these ignore the immediate crises faced by many Americans . Rather than conclude the US should control the cost of prescription drugs for its citizens, as elsewhere in the developed world, he suggests other countries should raise their prices – but they will not, wrote Slavitt . Americans are feeling significant pain on this issue. Trump also gave away reimportation – allowing US consumers to reimport drugs at prices paid by Canadians until pharmaceutical firms reduce American costs – as a bargaining chip, letting drugmakers focus their lobbying firepower on more modest proposals. But do not expect Trump ’s rhetoric to change, wrote Slavitt . When lower prices fail to appear, his supporters should hold him to account, he added.
Trump has missed his chance for boldness on reducing prescription drug prices and his presidency continues to be the worst for health care in modern times, wrote Donald Trump in USA Today . Slavitt , who ran Medicare , Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act during the Obama administration, said the President had given away big bargaining chips on the issue “in exchange for nothing”. There were high expectations for Trump after he ran a presidential campaign in which he accused pharmaceutical firms of “getting away with murder” with unchecked drug costs. As many as one in four Americans say they struggle to afford medication and 92% say the federal government should use its negotiating power to cut drug prices for Medicare . As a candidate, Trump promised to “negotiate like crazy” to save taxpayers $300 billion a year. But prices of more than 2,400 drugs already on the market have risen by at least double digits since he became president and there has been little action on soaring costs. This was supposed to change with Trump ’s big speech on 11 May but that and his American Patients First blueprint turned out to be a huge relief for Big Pharma , wrote Slavitt . There were no calls for the four big campaign promises that would have had the largest impact on consumers – negotiation and drug re-importation and drugmaker stocks rallied after his speech. Drugs companies have long claimed that cures for diseases such as cancer and other innovations are dependent on money they make as the result of higher prices. But this argument ignores the fact that prices often continue to rise long after a drug has been on the market. The Trump administration now says the government cannot effectively negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry, but this protects profits and hurts consumers, said Slavitt . The former Obama staffer added there were some encouraging plans in details released by Big Pharma that could work over the longer term. These included drugmakers disclosing list prices on TV ads, encouraging biosimilars (generic drugs) and possible changes to how drugs administered by physicians are paid for. But these ignore the immediate crises faced by many Americans . Rather than conclude the US should control the cost of prescription drugs for its citizens, as elsewhere in the developed world, he suggests other countries should raise their prices – but they will not, wrote Slavitt . Trump also gave away reimportation – allowing US consumers to reimport drugs at prices paid by Canadians until pharmaceutical firms reduce American costs – as a bargaining chip, letting drugmakers focus their lobbying firepower on more modest proposals. But do not expect Trump ’s rhetoric to change, wrote Slavitt . When lower prices fail to appear, his supporters should hold him to account, he added.