Hardly anyone would disagree with the general goal behind President Trump's pledge last Friday to “bring soaring drug prices back down to earth.” In fact, President Obama expressed the same objective, as have Members of Congress, state legislators, think tanks, economists, Medicare and insurance company officials, businesses, and patients. To paraphrase the old Cole Porter line, “birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it” — everyone is opposed to high drug prices charged by pharmaceutical companies, one of the nation's least loved industries.
Unfortunately, President Trump's plan to increase industry competition and strengthen the negotiating power of Medicare Part D, the private prescription-drug plan, but not the much more powerful federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is — like many others' proposals — too weak, stopping short of taking on the real culprits behind high drug costs. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said: “I think very expensive champagne will be popping in drug company boardrooms across the country” in response to Trump's proposal.
