After today’s Cabinet meeting, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar took a moment to explain how America’s seniors are footing the drug bills for patients in some of the richest countries in the world.
“So under President Trump, what we’ve found is that in our Medicare program for senior citizens, for the drugs that doctors administer in their offices to patients . . . we’re paying 180 percent of what the Europeans, the Canadians, and the Japanese are paying for the exact same drugs,” Secretary Azar says. “Pharma is making all their profit here in the United States, and then they’re giving these sweetheart deals in the other countries.”
Putting American patients first has been core to President Trump’s agenda since day one. Last week, during his second State of the Union address, he called on Congress to join him: “The next major priority for me, and for all of us, should be to lower the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs, and to protect patients with preexisting conditions.”
Already, President Trump’s efforts to put patients in control have resulted in the single largest decline in drug prices in 46 years. The FDA approved a record number of generic drugs in 2017 and 2018 as alternatives to expensive brand-name medicines. All told, these approvals have saved customers a staggering $26 billion.
The next chapter in the fight against high drug prices is increasing transparency and ending the practice of global free-riding. Hospitals, insurance companies, and drug companies should be required to disclose real prices to patients to drive costs down. And Americans must get a share of whatever discounts other wealthy countries receive.
“This is wrong, this is unfair, and together we will stop it,” President Trump said last Tuesday. “And we’ll stop it fast.”
Watch: It’s time to stop paying for the rich world’s medicine.
Read: “How Team Trump is bringing drug prices down” |
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