President Donald Trump's May 12 executive order was designed to reduce drug prices to align with what other countries pay. Will it really get the prices lowered?
According to KFF Health News, a health policy news organization, the executive order really could lower the cost of prescription drugs by the 30 to 80 percent. But, KFF reports, it may not be fast and the process may not be easy.
The executive order directs administration officials to provide "most-favored-nation price targets" to manufacturers. If drug makers fail to make sufficient progress toward those targets in 30 days, the order directs the secretary of Health and Human Services to propose a rule making plan to align pricing with administration goals.
As one health policy expert pointed out to KFF Health News, the president's legal authority to lower drug prices is unclear, and so the executive order functions as a means to encourage manufacturers to lower prices. And if the rule-making plan is triggered, it will likely take months to years to see any resulting changes.
Reducing prescription drug pricing has long been a bipartisan concern, and lawmakers on both sides generally agree that the current model is unfair and unsustainable. According to the Rand Corp., average drug prices in the U.S. are 2.78 times higher than the average in other industrialized countries. For brand-name drugs, prices averaged 4.22 times higher.
