President Donald Trump plans to resume a proposal to lower drug costs by basing U.S. drug costs on the prices charged in other countries, found three people who talked to Politico.
Trump is slated to order his administration next week to use the “most favored nation” policy for certain drugs provided by Medicare. According to the sources, using executive authority will help reduce prices, as the report states.
This proposal is currently being created by the White House staff, and it could still go through some changes as the plans are developed further, people taking part in the planning explained. So far, Trump has not approved the plan himself, Politico reported.
At his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Carney on Tuesday, Trump said a “big announcement” was coming up in the next week, and according to a source, the expected announcement is about new plans for drug pricing. The other sources were not able to verify the link, yet they agreed that the proposal will be revealed in the near future.
Trump promised that the announcement would be huge and would compare to the biggest things that happen. The announcement is expected to play a major role in the development of knowledge about this subject.
If Trump carries out this order, it could result in a big conflict between the White House and the leadership of the pharmaceutical industry.
In 2018, Trump put forward a similar plan, though it did not go ahead because drug manufacturers opposed it. In the last months of his first term, he tried to implement the policy again, but a judge stopped the effort since the administration did not follow the right procedures. Eventually, the new Biden administration revoked the policy, doing what Politico had already reported.
When asked about the renewed idea on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt did not give much information about its details.
Monday will see a huge and history-changing announcement from the President. At least until this is confirmed, everyone can still try to guess!
In the White House, Trump has been paying close attention to drugs and has pressed his assistants to come up with significant solutions to reduce what people pay for medications, the outlet said.
The report mentioned that in hopes of reducing Medicaid drug expenses, White House officials pressed congressional Republicans to include a “most favored nation” provision in their large bill, which would mean Medicaid has to pay the same low rates as other developed countries. Yet, the GOP conference was against that idea and it is doubtful it will be directly included in the final bill, one person informed Politico.
The White House may now go ahead without Congress’s help to put its proposed drug plan into place using the existing ‘most favored nation’ model, added the outlet. If the law resolves, the plan may encounter big opposition from the pharmaceutical industry since the industry believes it would destroy companies’ ability to make innovations. It might result in additional lawsuits being filed.
Just like last time, the new order will be similar in many ways and won’t mention specific drugs with the exception of a few details, as one source told Politico.
On his social network, Trump presented several court picks and shared his frustration on Wednesday that the judiciary is obstructing him from carrying out what the country chose him for.
On a Twitter post on Tuesday, Trump announced that Maria Lanahan, a Missouri Principal Deputy Solicitor General, has been nominated to sit on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. He dubbed her as “a true patriot.”
Mr. Trump also referred to Judge Cristian Stevens, now part of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, as a “great patriot”.