GOP balks at Trump's proposed drug price controls

[Greenbeard]

In the unlikely event the Trump administration sticks with the proposal it rolled out recently to set Medicare drug prices based on international prices, it's setting up a fight with the GOP and the right.

Will it stick to its guns and enrage its ideological allies by embracing price controls?

Or will it retreat from the only ideas it has come up with to try and make good on Trump's dormant campaign pledge to do something about drug prices, even as the industry thumbs its nose at his bluster ("Pfizer raises drug prices again, rebuking Trump ")?

GOP balks at Trump drug pricing plan

Republican opposition is building to a proposal from President Trump to lower drug prices in Medicare.

The rare break between Trump and Republican allies follows an aggressive step from the president in October that would tie certain Medicare drug prices to lower prices in other countries, a departure from the traditional GOP position.

But critics worry the move is essentially importing price controls from other countries, which is anathema to free-market minded Republicans, who are pushing back.

“I understand that we do want to get drug prices down but I think that any proposal that would lead to government price-fixing in that space is a pathway we don't want to follow,” Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), the first GOP lawmaker to publicly criticize the proposal, told The Hill.

Fifty-five conservative groups and activists sent HHS a strongly worded letter last week objecting to the proposal:

The proposed payment model imports foreign price controls into the U.S. by modifying the Part B reimbursement rate so that it is calculated based off the prices set by 14 countries.

Instead of relying on government price setting, Medicare Part B is currently calculated based on market prices. The formula, which is based on the “Average Sales Price” (ASP) in the U.S. market, includes the discounts negotiated between payers, hospitals and health plans. Recently this system led to a 0.8 percent decrease in the cost of the top 50 Part B drugs.

In contrast, foreign countries frequently utilize a range of arbitrary and market distorting policies to determine the cost of medicines – by definition such approaches are price controls. There is no negotiation and foreign governments often force innovators to accept lower prices in a “take-it-or-leave it” proposition. This results in reduced or restricted access to new medicines and higher prices for those medicines that enter the market.

Conservatives have long opposed price controls because they utilize government power to forcefully lower costs in a way that distorts the economically-efficient behavior and natural incentives created by the free market.

When imposed on medicines, price controls suppress innovation and access to new medicines. This deters the development and supply of new life saving and life improving medicines to the determent of consumers, patients, and doctors.

Stephen Moore is making the same argument in the National Review: Drug-Price Controls Can Be Injurious to Your Health

But Trump should beware. No one benefits if the U.S. — even inadvertently — imports unreasonable price controls from other nations that would erase the profits from creating the drugs in the first place. Many studies have shown that when nations artificially lower prices for drugs and other American-made health innovations, the very R&D spending that leads to miracle treatments and cures falls.

This could get interesting, assuming Trump doesn't fold quickly.

 

[What if...?]

In the unlikely event the Trump administration sticks with the proposal it rolled out recently to set Medicare drug prices based on international prices, it's setting up a fight with the GOP and the right.

Will it stick to its guns and enrage its ideological allies by embracing price controls?

Or will it retreat from the only ideas it has come up with to try and make good on Trump's dormant campaign pledge to do something about drug prices, even as the industry thumbs its nose at his bluster ("Pfizer raises drug prices again, rebuking Trump ")?

GOP balks at Trump drug pricing plan



Fifty-five conservative groups and activists sent HHS a strongly worded letter last week objecting to the proposal:


Stephen Moore is making the same argument in the National Review: Drug-Price Controls Can Be Injurious to Your Health


This could get interesting, assuming Trump doesn't fold quickly.

So we should just be able to order cheaper drugs wherever they are available.

Corporate persons enjoy price differentials, why not natural ones?

 

[Rexedgar]

Remember when Trump irked the NRA? After the White House meeting, the tone changed.........




https://usat.ly/2HX0HoZ

Big Pharma meeting in the future?

 

[bearpoker]

In the unlikely event the Trump administration sticks with the proposal it rolled out recently to set Medicare drug prices based on international prices, it's setting up a fight with the GOP and the right.

Will it stick to its guns and enrage its ideological allies by embracing price controls?

Or will it retreat from the only ideas it has come up with to try and make good on Trump's dormant campaign pledge to do something about drug prices, even as the industry thumbs its nose at his bluster ("Pfizer raises drug prices again, rebuking Trump ")?

GOP balks at Trump drug pricing plan



Fifty-five conservative groups and activists sent HHS a strongly worded letter last week objecting to the proposal:


Stephen Moore is making the same argument in the National Review: Drug-Price Controls Can Be Injurious to Your Health


This could get interesting, assuming Trump doesn't fold quickly.

It's not really price controls. The customer is offering to buy at a price. The seller is free to reject the offer and sell to someone else.

 

[Greenbeard]

Remember when Trump irked the NRA? After the White House meeting, the tone changed.........




https://usat.ly/2HX0HoZ

Big Pharma meeting in the future?

The proposal in the OP is about Medicare Part B but what you're describing already happened for Medicare Part D. Way back in Trump's first few days in office.

After meeting with pharma lobbyists, Trump drops promise to negotiate drug prices

A lot happened in the 2016 campaign, but one of the things Donald Trump did to win the election was shift to the left on a number of key issues — promising to avoid cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits and adopting a longstanding Democratic pledge to let Medicare negotiate bulk discounts in the price it pays for prescription drugs.

Today, after a meeting with pharmaceutical industry lobbyists and executives, he abandoned that pledge, referring to an idea he supported as recently as three weeks ago as a form of “price fixing” that would hurt “smaller, younger companies.” Instead of getting tough, Trump’s new plan is that he’s “going to be lowering taxes” and “getting rid of regulations.”

Hence my skepticism that when the going gets tough the current proposal will survive. He's starting to bleed ideological allies.

 

[Captain America]

It costs so much money to get a drug to market.

R&D. Regulations. FDA, etc.

Plus, in the few years they have to recoup all that expense, they also have to recoup the expense they wasted on the drugs that DIDN'T make it to market.

Foreign governments tend to heavy-hand big pharma telling them what they can and cannot charge.

Meanwhile, American's foot the expense for the R&D, regs, FDA, etc.... And people half way across reap the benefit of getting the drugs cheaper than we can.

Just my opinion. Not an expert on the subject by any means.