Trump To Lower Drug Costs Through Signed Executive Orders

Having an accessible and reliable health care plan can be hard especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Americans also do not have a universal health care program, compared to other countries.

This means that the government rarely provides its citizens any health benefits. Anytime you need medical care, you will have to spend money on it. Not to mention prescription drugs.

This might all change with President Donald Trump's four newly signed executive orders on Friday.

This aims to lower the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs.

The first Order wants qualified health centers to enforce huge discounts on insulin and epinephrine to low-income Americans, the White House statement said.

The second Order will allow State plans for the safe importation of specific drugs, as well as authorize the re-importation of U.S. made insulin products.

The third Order prohibits secret deals between manufacturers and pharmacies to ensure patients directly benefit from the discounts available.

The final Order ensures that the U.S. pays the lowest price available.

Trump also signed legislation ending gag clauses that allows pharmacists not to inform patients about the best prices for the medications they need.

White House counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway has dubbed Trump as "the health care president," a report says.

Trump said officials of top pharmaceutical companies have requested a meeting to discuss how they can implement the order in their practice.

"We will see what those discussions indicate but the agency is prepared to move forward," Medicare chief Seema Verma was quoted in a Reuters report.

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said the orders were "a reckless distraction that impedes our ability to respond to the current pandemic - and those we could face in the future."

Wall Street analysts said that the orders would hugely affect the pharmaceutical industry and will be difficult to put into practice.

RBC Capital Markets biotech analyst Brian Abrahams said that the move was more likely towards "deriving campaign talking points" rather than producing material effects.

The White House statement said the president has always promised to protect patients with preexisting conditions.

It added that Trump has empowered patients with more choices in healthcare through increasing the accessibility of lower-priced health insurance plans.

Drug Price Reform

Trump has repeatedly called for lower prices of prescription drugs. The Congress, however, has not yet passed any major drug price reform.

Many of the Trump administration's efforts to lower drug prices, as well as the implementation of rebates have been delayed due to industry pushback.

"Reviving a rebate reform proposal now does not address the underlying flaws - that it will drastically increase Medicare premiums for America's seniors and most vulnerable," the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association was quoted in a report.

Trump also signed an executive order last year, aiming to fight kidney disease and expand the number of kidney transplants.

He also extended telehealth medicine during the pandemic to ensure that medical care is accessible while decreasing the risk of COVID-19 exposure for both patients and health workers.

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