Posted on 01/13/2017 6:19:27 AM PST by GIdget2004
President-elect Donald Trump reopened an awkward division over high drug prices with fellow Republicans during his first press briefing this week -- putting lawmakers on defense on an issue they've tried to tamp down.
GOP lawmakers reacted in a way they've become accustomed to over the past year: Sorry, but we haven't seen his comments. Yet, Trump's call to "create new bidding procedures for the drug industry" puts Republicans in a tough spot, since it's a measure they traditionally oppose and Democrats historically support.
"We can agree to disagree at times," Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), a key Trump ally in the House, said. "I am not someone who believes the government should set pricing, as in price controls. I believe in a free market."
Democrats were more gleeful.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) highlighted the comments on the Senate floor and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) suggested Democrats and the president-elect could work together to give the Medicare program bargaining power.
The skyrocketing price of prescription drugs is among the public's top health concerns, as it's hitting them where it hurts -- their pocketbooks. And lawmakers have responded by berating pharmaceutical CEOs in hearings and launching investigations.
Presidential candidates railed against the high costs of drugs on the campaign trail, and both Sanders and Hillary Clinton proposed allowing Medicare to negotiate drugs. So did Trump in the early days of his campaign, although his healthcare platform never included the idea.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
I thought Trump was just referring to Medicare/Medicaid negotiating prices for the drugs they use?
And if the GOPe is defending what happened with things like the Epi-pen, then shame on them for it.
In related matters, what is the actual stated Trump / GOP plan to replace ACA?
Does anybody know what the stated position is on a replacement other than mouthing more about “free market”?
To me, pharmaceutical companies are just below wife beaters in terms of criminality.
Marketing drugs for off label uses, then after making 200 billion, paying a 7 billion fine.
They Don’t have to and DIDN’T hand in Negative results from antidepressant studies, of which there were many. Why they aren’t obligated to turn over negative results too is beyond me. The FDA has to fix that.
When Oxycontin hit the market, pharma promised it would just be use for extreme cases like cancer patients.
We know how that ended.
Then they make money of suboxone, the drug that gets addicts off of the drug that pharma made in the first place.
Funny how the Big Pharma wound up being at worst exempt from and more likely buttressed by Obamacare. Oligopolies happily cut deals with big government to reduce risk and cement positions.
Getting drug prices down will help alot, as they're among the biggest drivers of year-to-year increases in costs.
Epi-pen? Follow the money. That is all it takes to follow the GOPe. They are money whores.
Ryan comes out today saying that mass deportation of illegals is impractical. FEET of MUD. Clay is too firm a description. Pugsley Ryan blows with any old wind.
As the preacher said one day, Any old dead fish can float downstream.
Not sure what’s in it, but it will be passed the same hour as repeal.
Trump is going to diverge from Republicans and from Conservative orthodoxy at certain times.
Get used to it. It’s how he won the election.
Still beats the alternative.
Bid purchasing power is the only thing that makes sense to me. If you ever find the SOBs colluding on the bids beat them to death.
You would be amazed how fast and how much drug prices for the common stuff could come down. They have plenty of room to wiggle on price an still make money.
I’ve bought name brand, top of the line, new stuff overseas for a fraction of what it costs in the US. e.g. Voltaren gel is sold over the counter outside the US for less than $10 a tube. It is prescription here and more than $50 a tube.
Negotiating price is the very foundation of a free market.
That does not bother you? To not know what the replacement plan is? It should because taking something away and then only having the chaos that was health care insurance back again is not sensible.
Simply repealing is irresponsible and petulant.
Interesting double-standard how Trump had to divest himself from his empire while that woman with close ties to the epi-pen manufacturer didn’t.
Hold on there, the Pharmaceutical company that inflated the cost of the Epi-pen has as it’s CEO Sen Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) daughter. No linky or mention of that relationship in Big Media, by the way.
I met the manager of a major pharma investment fund. He mentioned this inability of the government to bid on drug prices and said it is leading to price gouging. I’m sure Trump heard the same thing.
I think the issue is more complicated than that.
The costs involved in developing some drugs .. is hampered by the years and hours and processes used to produce a useable product. Sadly, it is the way drugs are developed. Staffing labs with equipment and skilled people to do the research takes considerable amounts of funds.
That being said; it appears to me that most of these companies, want an instant return on their investment. Which I’m not sure is reasonable.
I have known of the epi-pen for years; why all of a sudden it became so outrageously expensive doesn’t seem to have a logical answer.
Republican ideology is far from conservative. So is the ideology of the conservative industrial complex.
It will be a concise 2-pager that eliminates state lines and enables health savings accounts and maybe tax credits. People with chronic problems but without income go into a special pool. Stephen King referred to it as the dead pool.
This is a chance for Trump to really really shine. A reduction in prescription drug costs, negotiated rates for Medicare, Medicaid and possible forced competition between drug manufacturers by limiting patents, not extending existing patents, and mandatory licensing for another manufacturer.
Now for the lawyers (oh hear them howl)
Lawyer’s fee Caps and more stringent rules on class action lawsuits regarding prescription drugs, medical devices.
Payout caps and Lawyer’s fee caps on medical malpractice for all damages but actual damages.
I wouldn’t even mind the Federal government or State Mandates nationalize medical malpractice insurance.
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