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Posted on 05/11/2025 10:54:36 PM PDT by rexthecat
President Trump vowed to bring “FAIRNESS TO AMERICA!” by deeply slashing prescription drug prices through an executive order he plans to sign Monday morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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When did presidents get the unilateral power to control drug prices in America? It’s nowhere in the Constitution.
He is not controlling pricing. He is requiring Big Pharma to give America the best world price that they give socialist nations.
No more subsidizing the world.
If I understand this correctly, it's NOT that the price to America drops unilaterally with no other effect.
It's that the price to other nations will RISE as the price to America FALLS, such that it comes to a balance point.
At that point the drug company can recoup its R&D investment (that's the alleged reason for the high price) but America isn't the only country helping them recoup.
Sound right?
> He is requiring Big Pharma to give America the best world price that they give socialist nations. <
I suppose a president can do that when it comes to federal programs like Medicare.
But he has no constitutional authority to control prices when it comes to some guy paying for a prescription through private insurance, or by cash.
Don’t get me wrong. Prescription costs are out of whack, and need to be investigated. But when price controls are instituted, supply lines often dry up. It’s dangerous business.
He’s not instituting price controls. He is simply saying if Big Pharma is willing to sell to France $600 for medication, the American should be able to get it for $600 as well.
Basically, the reason why pharmaceuticals are so expensive in America is because Big Pharma was using the American to offset their prices for the world.
I don’t see how an EO is the appropriate tool unless someone can point to a government program. HHS website has nothing either.
> He is simply saying if Big Pharma is willing to sell to France $600 for medication, the American should be able to get it for $600 as well. <
Nothing wrong with saying that. In fact, it’s something that should be said.
But forcing a company to do so is quite another matter entirely.
I’m really torn by this. Government interference in pricing almost always makes things worse in the long run. Just look at Venezuela. On the other hand, some pharmaceutical pricing approaches monopoly abuse.
I trust Trump. I also think the free-market system is the best system of all. Hopefully, a reasonable middle ground will be reached.
Or is he simply saying, I will use power lent to me by Congress regarding tariffs to permit other nations to institute price controls in America?
I don't know the particulars of how these prices are set elsewhere nor do I know for sure what authority the president purports to be operating under.
I think it's useful to segregate constitutional questions of federal power to set drug prices from the desirability or undesirability of reducing drug prices at home until we, or at least I, better understand the context.
The context I have is that the rest of the world was waging war against America, by draining of its wealth to force it to subsidized them to make socialism seem like a great option.
Trump is just using the tools he has to wage war back.
I have wondered about the constitutionality of this move, but I have not wondered about the political brilliance behind it. If it doesn’t get shot down, then it’s a blessing for the nation. If it does get shot down, a powerful finger of blame can be pointed during the off-year elections.
He tried this EO in term 1...not much changed.
That’s because it hadn’t taken effect during his first term and Bidon was able to cancel it before it could.
Not sure how this forces France to pay more. It’s France that’s demanding the lower price, not the pharmaceutical company. How does Trump’s EO force France to pay more?
Never said it did. However, without the subsidy from the American consumer, France will either have to pay more or do without. Otherwise, the Big Pharma will either have to accept less profit or do without.
A court/judge (Clinton appointee) cancelled it, not Biden:
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-medicaid-medicare-courts-b3ddb5c7856f7a11fd569b303b63eb6b
In a world in which our allies take advantage of our intellectual and scientific capacity to create new drugs, albeit at extremely high research costs, Trump is acting in a way that seems to be aimed at the unfair poaching of our life-saving drug efforts.
If we think of what our allies are doing to us by, in effect, stealing our intellectual capital concerning drugs and regard it in the context of the very same allies virtually stealing the security we provide to NATO, it is easy to get indignant and demand that something be done.
But does the president's action aimed at our supposed allies who ride free, or at least cheap, in obtaining our drugs hurt the allies or does it hurt American drug developers and, ultimately, American consumers? In other words, to be effective the president's mandate must be observed by our companies who presumably will be unable to cover the exorbitant cost of developing drugs by charging European level prices. At this point it is the drug developer and American drug consumers who our damaged when drug producers simply cease producing drugs.
Only at the point that the drugs no longer become available because the American drug producers ceased to produce at these lower European prices, do our allies feel the pinch as their people go without life-saving drugs. That is, unless they bootleg existing American drugs. But no new drugs will be made available to either American or European consumers under this scenario.
At the end of the day, American consumers will be hurt and the action by the president can only be justified as an opening shot in a temporary war with the Europeans to force them to pay their fair share.
We ask whether the president will be rewarded politically for this action? In the short term, certainly. But as the scenario unfolds and consumers are deprived of life-saving drugs, public opinion could reverse. But this, of course, will probably not happen for some time.
Perhaps the president should consider imposing export duties on these drugs to compensate for what amounts to price controls imposed abroad?
You are correct. People can get meds from Canada, and have them mailed, at steep discounts. The Golden American Goose takes it in the ass all day long. America doesn’t have money, they print it.
I recently was filling a prescription for an antibiotic. The co-pay was $195. I told the pharmacist I would go without. He offered to sell it as a cash item. $34. bucks out the door. The drug companies are screwing Americans at the store and through the insurance companies and medicare.
Yup
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