“Donald Trump mentioned he was going to permit Medicare to barter drug costs. He by no means did. We did.”
Vice President Kamala Harris on the ABC Information presidential debate, Sept. 10
Since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the presidential race, she and former President Donald Trump have sparred over their approaches to decreasing prescription drug prices. Harris has described this as an essential marketing campaign promise that Trump made however didn’t ship on.
“Donald Trump mentioned he was going to permit Medicare to barter drug costs,” Harris mentioned throughout the ABC Information debate on Sept. 10 in Philadelphia. “He by no means did. We did.”
She beforehand informed CNN that Trump’s promise to pursue such negotiations “by no means occurred” throughout his administration.
Through the 2016 presidential marketing campaign, Trump repeatedly promised, if elected, to take steps to permit the federal government to barter drug costs. He by no means enacted such a coverage in workplace. The Trump administration pursued smaller, non permanent applications geared toward decreasing drug prices.
Nonetheless, consultants say the impact of Trump’s strikes fell far wanting the anticipated impact of the Medicare drug value negotiation program included in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Discount Act and of what Trump promised.
Medicare Drug Value Negotiation Coverage, Defined
The Inflation Discount Act — a sweeping local weather and well being care regulation Biden signed in August 2022 — included a measure authorizing the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers to barter Medicare prescription drug costs immediately with pharmaceutical firms.
“The concept behind drug value negotiation is that Medicare can use its shopping for energy to get a greater value than what’s at present being negotiated for these medicine,” in line with Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the Program on Medicare Coverage at KFF, a well being data nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information.
Medicare covers greater than 67 million People, giving it huge potential affect over costs for U.S. medicine and medical providers.
In August, CMS introduced it had secured important reductions on the checklist costs of 10 medicine due to its negotiations. These reductions ranged from a 38% discount for blood most cancers medicine Imbruvica on the low finish to a 79% minimize for diabetes drug Januvia on the excessive facet. (Listing costs and the costs Medicare drug plans pay can differ.)
The brand new costs are anticipated to save lots of Medicare $6 billion within the first 12 months, with Medicare beneficiaries set to save lots of a further $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket prices, in line with the White Home.
These new costs aren’t set to take impact till 2026 — although Biden and Harris have highlighted different elements of the regulation which might be bringing down drug prices sooner, comparable to a $35-a-month out-of-pocket value cap on insulin for Medicare enrollees and a $2,000 yearly out-of-pocket spending cap for Half D medicine efficient in January. The Half D program covers most generic and brand-name outpatient pharmaceuticals.
CMS will begin negotiating costs for the subsequent group of medicine — 15 a 12 months for the subsequent two years — in early 2025, and people talks will proceed yearly a minimum of via the top of the last decade.
Trump’s Guarantees Versus His Actions
As a presidential candidate in 2016, Donald Trump pledged to pursue prescription drug value negotiation applications — and typically overstated such a coverage’s energy to chop costs.
Throughout a number of marketing campaign rallies and media interviews that 12 months, Trump steered permitting the federal government to barter drug costs immediately with producers would save $300 billion a 12 months, a declare a fact-checker mentioned was “absurd” then.
“The issue is, we don’t negotiate,” Trump mentioned throughout an MSNBC city corridor in Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 17, 2016. “We’re the most important drug purchaser on the planet. We don’t negotiate.” He went on to say: “If we negotiated the value of medicine, Joe, we’d save $300 billion a 12 months.”
Equally, at a Feb. 24, 2016, rally in Virginia Seashore, Virginia, Trump reiterated his curiosity in making this modification. “In the event you bid them out we’ll save $300 billion … and we don’t even do it. We’re going to do it.” The pharmaceutical business would push again, he mentioned, however he added: “Belief me I can do it.”
In workplace, nevertheless, Trump backed away from these guarantees, rejecting a invoice spearheaded by then-Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to authorize such negotiations. The Democratic-led Home in the end handed that laws, although the Republican-led Senate didn’t take into account it.
“Pelosi and her Do Nothing Democrats drug pricing invoice doesn’t do the trick,” Trump wrote on X, the social platform then often called Twitter.
Trump pursued smaller initiatives that sought to decrease drug prices. One such program, the “most favored nation” mannequin, tried to cap the price of some Half B medicines — these administered in a physician’s workplace or hospital outpatient setting — on the lowest value paid in sure peer nations with a per capita GDP of a minimum of 60% that of the US.
“Medicare is the most important purchaser of medicine anyplace on the planet by far,” Trump mentioned in saying this system. “We’re lastly going to make use of that unimaginable energy to attain a fairer and lower cost for everybody.”
The Trump marketing campaign didn’t reply to an inquiry about prescription drug value negotiations or essentially the most favored nation mannequin.
This system would have began in January 2021 and lasted seven years. CMS officers estimated the federal government would save greater than $85 billion on Half B spending. However a few of these financial savings got here from assumptions that Medicare beneficiaries would lose entry to some Half B medicines underneath the mannequin, with some producers unlikely to promote merchandise on the decrease, international costs.
Trump’s program by no means took impact. Amid lawsuits from a number of drug firms and business teams, a federal choose stayed the plan in December 2020. The Biden administration scrapped it in 2022.
Even when essentially the most favored nation mannequin had been enacted, consultants say it wouldn’t have come near saving People or the federal government as a lot cash because the IRA’s drug value negotiation provisions. A contemporaneous evaluation of Trump’s proposal estimated that 7% of the 60 million Medicare beneficiaries in 2018 would have benefited.
Extra importantly, essentially the most favored nation mannequin didn’t authorize the federal government to barter prescription drug costs with producers — the coverage Trump promised to implement.
What Comes Subsequent?
A current KFF ballot exhibits 85% of People, together with greater than three-quarters of Republicans, favor permitting Medicare to barter costs with drug firms.
And decreasing drug prices continues to be a key difficulty for each campaigns, with Trump and Harris sparring over all the things from the value of insulin to the influence of the Inflation Discount Act on Medicare spending.
“I’ll decrease the price of insulin and pharmaceuticals for everybody along with your assist, not solely our seniors,” Harris informed supporters at an Aug. 16 marketing campaign occasion in Raleigh, North Carolina, promising to increase the IRA’s value caps.
A Trump marketing campaign spokesperson, in the meantime, beforehand informed KFF Well being Information that the previous president “will do all the things attainable to decrease drug prices for People when he’s again within the White Home, identical to he completed in his first time period.” She supplied no specifics.
Trump, nevertheless, has additionally repeatedly promised to repeal elements of the Inflation Discount Act — although he has by no means particularly talked about the drug value negotiation provision — and to rescind unspent cash. Congressional Republicans have spoken publicly about their intentions to roll again the drug value negotiation provision.
Even with out legislative adjustments, the subsequent president could have the chance to steer Medicare’s prescription drug value negotiation course of.
“An administration that wishes to be extra lenient on drug firms could be extra lax within the negotiations course of,” mentioned Tricia Neuman, a senior vp at KFF and the chief director of its Program on Medicare Coverage. “Or the administration may maybe be more durable than the Biden administration.”
Our Ruling
As a presidential candidate in 2016, Donald Trump promised to let the federal government negotiate prescription drug costs immediately with pharmaceutical firms. As president, nevertheless, he as a substitute tried to tie some U.S. drug costs to their prices in different international locations. Drugmakers and business teams sued, difficult the transfer, and courts blocked it.
Harris, due to this fact, is appropriate that Trump by no means was in a position to open Medicare as much as drug negotiations regardless of his sweeping marketing campaign guarantees.
We charge Harris’ declare True.
Our Sources:
ABC Information, “READ: Harris-Trump Presidential Debate Transcript,” Sept. 10, 2024
Axios, “Hill GOP Units Sights on Scrapping Drug Value Talks,” Sept. 17, 2024
Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers, “Trump Administration Pronounces Prescription Drug Fee Mannequin To Put American Sufferers First,” Nov. 18, 2020
CNN, “READ: Harris and Walz’s Unique Joint Interview With CNN,” Aug. 30, 2024
Congress.gov, “H.R.3 – Elijah E. Cummings Decrease Drug Prices Now Act,” accessed Sept. 17, 2024
Factbase, “Donald Trump Attends an MSNBC City Corridor in Charleston, South Carolina,” Feb. 17, 2016
Factbase, “Donald Trump in Pawleys Island, SC,” Feb. 19, 2016
Federal Register, “42 CFR Half 513,” Nov. 27, 2020
KFF, “A Standing Report on Prescription Drug Insurance policies and Proposals on the Begin of the Biden Administration,” Feb. 11, 2021
KFF, “KFF Well being Monitoring Ballot September 2024: Help for Decreasing Prescription Drug Costs Stays Excessive, Even As Consciousness of IRA Provisions Lags,” Sept. 13, 2024
KFF, “Most Folks Are Unlikely To See Drug Price Financial savings From President Trump’s ‘Most Favored Nation’ Proposal,” Aug. 27, 2020
KFF Well being Information, “5 Issues To Know In regards to the New Drug Pricing Negotiations,” Aug. 30, 2023
KFF Well being Information, “Harris Did Not Vote To ‘Reduce Medicare,’ Regardless of Trump’s Declare,” Aug. 20, 2024
KFF Well being Information, “Trump Is Flawed in Claiming Full Credit score for Decreasing Insulin Costs,” July 18, 2024
Cellphone interview with Tricia Neuman, a senior vp at KFF and the chief director of its Program on Medicare Coverage, Sept. 13, 2024
Reuters, “Federal Choose Blocks Trump Administration Drug Pricing Rule,” Dec. 23, 2020
The Washington Publish, “Trump’s Actually Absurd Declare He Would Save $300 Billion a 12 months on Prescription Medication,” Feb. 18, 2016
The White Home, “Remarks by President Trump at Signing of Government Orders on Decreasing Drug Costs” July 24, 2020
The White Home, “Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Marketing campaign Occasion in Raleigh, NC,” Aug. 16, 2024
X, then often called Twitter, “@RealDonaldTrump,” Nov. 22, 2019