Feb. 10 (UPI) — The White House released a white paper Friday proposing policies to lower high prescription drug prices, an idea President Donald Trump campaigned on.
The 28-page document, written by the administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, suggests a cap on out-of-pocket spending for Medicare recipients on prescription costs and removing incentives for doctors to prescribe higher-cost medications.
The paper also proposes allowing up to five states to band together to negotiate Medicaid drug prices.
But the council is against the idea of government price fixing. The report says companies must increase prices in the United States to offset lower prices in countries where there is price setting.
“Reducing drug prices that Americans pay means recognizing that many artificially high prices result from government policies that prevent, rather than foster, healthy price competition,” the report said.
In October, Trump told his Cabinet that drug companies “are getting away with murder” with high prices in the United States.
“Because [other countries are] setting such low prices that we’re actually subsidizing other countries, and that’s just not going to happen anymore,” Trump said.
The administration says that while it wants to lower costs for consumers, it also wants to foster innovation in pharmaceutical companies.
“The U.S. biopharmaceutical industry is the engine of worldwide biopharmaceutical innovation and an important part of our economy,” the report says. “Preserving this industry and encouraging it to innovate while making drugs more available and affordable for all Americans is an attainable goal.”
During his campaign, Trump said reducing the cost of prescription drugs — by allowing drug companies to introduce cheaper versions of medications already on the market — would have the side benefit of reducing the cost of health insurance without intensive government regulations.
