President Trump really did inherit a mess. It was not just Barack Obama who kicked the can down the road, George Bush did it and so did his father.
Bill Clinton as well – look, for too long certain industries got preferential treatment in Washington at the average American’s expense.
The pharmaceutical industry is probably the worst abuser in our corrupt system. Obama tried to take on big Pharma and quickly caved while George Bush rolled over and basically gave them a handout.
The thing is, every single American knows big pharma is screwing us, on an almost instinctual level. We just never had a leader with the stones to take them on. Until Trump.
Trump may have lost this small battle, but he will win the war to drive down costs. And when he does, the Democrats will be stuck because even they wouldn’t dare try to stop that win from reaching the American people.
From Reuters:
A federal judge on Monday dealt a blow to the Trump administration by striking down a new rule that would have forced pharmaceutical companies to include the wholesale prices of their drugs in television advertising.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington sided with drugmakers Merck & Co Inc, Eli Lilly and Co and Amgen Inc by halting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule from taking effect on Tuesday as planned.
Mehta in his ruling set aside the entire rule as invalid, saying the HHS lacked authority from the U.S. Congress to compel drug manufacturers to disclose list prices.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced the rule on May 8, saying that forcing drugmakers to disclose their prices in direct-to-consumer TV advertising could help drive down skyrocketing prescription drug costs if the companies were embarrassed by them or afraid they would scare away customers.
The rule was originally suggested in May 2018 as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “blueprint” to lower prescription drug costs for U.S. consumers.
The judge said such disclosures could well be an effective tool in halting the rising cost of prescription drugs. “But no matter how vexing the problem of spiraling drug costs may be, HHS cannot do more than what Congress has authorized,” Mehta concluded.
Under the rule, the wholesale, or list, price would be included if it was $35 or more for a month’s supply or the usual course of therapy. HHS said the 10 most commonly advertised drugs had list prices of $488 to $16,938 per month or for a usual course of therapy.
