“President Trump’s proposal to import prescription drugs is a poor substitute for real reforms that would guarantee everyone affordable medicine and stop Big Pharma’s price gouging. Instead, Trump’s plan does nothing to fix our fundamentally flawed system. Drug corporations will continue to reap record profits and hike prices without any check on their power. Patients still won’t be able to get hundreds of widely used medicines. Taxpayers will continue to fund research and development, while pharmaceutical corporations will keep using those investment to boost profits at our expense.
If President Trump were really committed to making medicines affordable, he would support the Lower Drug Costs Act that passed last week in the House of Representatives. That law would require drug companies to negotiate lower prices with government for people in Medicare and private insurance and help millions of people save on prescription drugs. Instead, Trump offers a poor substitute: an importation plan that doesn’t even cover basic medicines like insulin and Humira.
We won’t be fooled by tweaks and half-measures that protect Big Pharma’s status quo. For three years running, President Trump has made and broken promises on lowering drug prices. He criticizes drug corporations when it helps his approval ratings, but his proposals shield the industry from changes that would stop them setting and keeping prescription prices astronomically high.
We can and must do better, but not with a leader who’s unwilling to hold the real culprits accountable. We need a comprehensive, aggressive plan to change the rules so we protect patients, not enable bigger corporate profits. It’s time that everyone in America has access to affordable prescription drugs, no matter where they live, what they look like or what’s in their wallets. People’s lives are on the line.”