Shomporko Desk:-Enduring an onslaught for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump turned Friday to a longstanding campaign promise – to lower drug prices.
The president restored a kitchen sink of disputable proposition planned for lessening Americans’ drug costs, which have propelled small during his term. He signed four executive orders, including ones for bringing in medications from Canada and basing the expense of drugs in the U.S. on their costs in different nations – the two of which progressive Democrats, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, have pushed.
The endeavours, which to a great extent reaffirm the policies of the administration, are probably not going to have an impact before the November election if they ever do. Most require rulemaking by the Department of Health and Human Services and could be challenged in court.
Notably, however, Trump strongly advocated allowing Medicare to negotiate prices — a measure he slammed House Democrats for including in their drug price bill last December. The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which established Medicare’s Part D drug plan, banned such negotiation to secure the votes of Republican lawmakers.
“Under our ridiculous system, which has been broken for decades, we aren’t even allowed to negotiate the price of drugs,” Trump said Friday just prior to signing the orders. “Can you imagine? What kind of system is that? It’s going to end.”
But he also said that drug company executives, whom he has been courting to swiftly develop vaccines and treatment for COVID-19 and inking hefty deals to do so, were coming to the White House on Tuesday to present their ideas for reducing costs. Trump said he’ll consider not implementing the order on international pricing if talks with drug manufacturers are successful.
The pharmaceutical industry swiftly condemned the measures, pointing to Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this year in which he said he would never let socialism destroy American health care.
“Yet, in the middle of a global pandemic, when nearly 145,000 Americans have lost their lives and millions of others have suffered untold economic hardships, this administration has decided to pursue a radical and dangerous policy to set prices based on the rates paid in countries that he has labelled as socialist, which will harm patients today and into the future,” said Stephen Ubl, CEO of PhRMA, a leading industry association.
Photo credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
News source: CNN
