Medical prices in the United States are ridiculous, especially compared to other countries’ cost of medicine and treatment.
President Trump is looking to combat this as part of his goal to Make America Even Greater all the way through two terms of presidency!
On Friday, Trump announced that the White House is looking at enacting a “favored-nations” clause that would require drugmakers to sell medicine in the United States at the lowest cost possible, which would dramatically cut the cost of medicine in our nation!
Take a look at news of this that hit Twitter:
Fox Business has more details on the clause that President Trump is considering:
President Trump Opens a New Window. is potentially seeking to require that drugmakers Opens a New Window. sell medicine in the U.S. at the lowest cost offered elsewhere in the world, a move that would have a radical effect Opens a New Window. on the industry and deepen the dispute between pharmaceutical firms and the administration over rising treatment prices.
On Friday, Trump said the White House is working on an executive order to implement “a favored-nation clause, where we pay whatever the lowest nation’s price is.”
“Why should other nations like Canada — why should other nations pay much less than us? They’ve taken advantage of the system for a long time, pharma,” he told reporters.
Details of the proposal were not immediately available and the White House declined to comment. Still, it sent shares of top pharmaceutical firms down in Wall Street Opens a New Window. trading on Monday.
The threat could mark a dramatic escalation in Trump’s ongoing feud with drug manufacturers. A measure that would tie the cost of certain treatments in the Medicare program to the average cost in over a dozen countries is currently under federal review.
It is unclear whether Trump is referring to the same system, which could be launched as a five-year pilot program. But a proposal akin to a “most favored nation” clause, which is typically used in trade agreements to ensure one country receives the best terms available, would be a more far-reaching step.
Nations like Greece and Portugal have notoriously low prices and forcing drugmakers to offer their products in the U.S. at those levels would erode profit margins and could even lead some companies that have a less diversified portfolio to shutter or scale back operations, experts say.
The industry’s strategy “has evolved from making money on volume to instead making money on price because Wall Street really rewards high prices,” health care consultant Jane Horvath told FOX Business. “The business model is just not going to be workable anymore.”
Bloomberg also had the following to say:
President Donald Trump said his administration is devising a system to allow the U.S. to buy drugs based on the lowest prices paid by other countries.
“We’re working on right now a favored-nations clause,” Trump told reporters at the White House Friday.
Last year, Trump described a proposal that would allow Medicare to set prices for drugs based on cheaper prices paid by other countries. Known as the International Pricing Index, those regulations are under review by the federal government.
“So, we’re paying a price based on the price that other nations are paying,” he said in October, referring to the index at the time as a “favored nations” arrangement. “That’s what we’re going to pay. No longer seven times more.”
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