Trump blames other countries for high US drug prices. Experts say it's not their fault

[Eugene]

Earlier DU thread: EO asks drugmakers to lower U.S. or raise foreign prices, but offers no policy proposal

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Source: Associated Press

FACT FOCUS: Trump blames other countries for high US drug prices. Experts say it’s not their fault

By MELISSA GOLDIN
Updated 5:00 PM EDT, May 14, 2025

President Donald Trump incorrectly placed the blame for high prescription drug prices in the U.S. on foreign nations, making the comments Monday when signing an executive order intended to lower their cost.

The order sets a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to electively lower prices in the U.S. or face new limits in the future over what the government will pay. If favorable deals are not reached, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be tasked with developing a new rule that ties prices the U.S. pays for medications to lower prices paid by other countries.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: “We were subsidizing others’ healthcare, the countries where they pay a small fraction of what — for the same drug that what we pay, many, many times more for, and will no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma. But again, it was really the countries that forced Big Pharma to do things that frankly, I’m not sure they really felt comfortable doing. But they’ve gotten away with it, these countries. European Union has been brutal, brutal.”

THE FACTS: This is misleading. Prices for most prescription drugs — unbranded generics are the exception — are higher in the U.S. than they are in other high-income countries. But, experts say, it is in large part the way drug prices are negotiated in the U.S. that drives up costs.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-drug-prices-subsidize-healthcare-a7a41cf2dbfb34fb39ecc38ea728c473

[Eugene]

1. Trump signs executive order seeking to lower US drug costs by challenging prices in other countries

Source: CNN

Trump signs executive order seeking to lower US drug costs by challenging prices in other countries

By Tami Luhby, CNN
6 minute read
Updated 11:32 PM EDT, Mon May 12, 2025

(CNN) — President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order Monday morning that promises to crack down on “unreasonable or discriminatory” practices by foreign countries that result in Americans paying far higher costs for prescription drugs.

“Starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the health care of foreign countries, which is what we were doing,” Trump said before signing the executive order, which he claimed could lower drug prices by as much as 90%.

Also, drugmakers must start offering US patients the lowest price paid for a drug in a peer country, known as the “Most Favored Nation” price, or face consequences, the president said. He directed the Department of Health and Human Services to come up with price targets within 30 days.

“Big Pharma will either abide by this principle voluntarily or we will use the power of the federal government to ensure that we are paying the same price as other countries to accelerate these price restrictions and reductions,” Trump said, although it’s unclear what authority he has to demand certain prices, particularly in the private market.

-snip-

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/12/politics/trump-executive-order-prescription-drug-prices

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. The genius of the stable keeps on failing Economics Reality 101. . . . nt

[Bristlecone]

3. Yeah! If their prices weren't so low, our would not be high.

“We need theirs to be higher so ours are lower by comparison. Simple math. It’s common sense,” Dumbfuck in Chief said as he licked his fingers after helping himself to more baklava at the Saudi palace.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. It's always the other guy's fault in Trump world