President Donald Trump late Thursday unveiled TrumpRx, a direct-to-consumer website where Americans can buy prescription drugs directly from drugmakers at reduced prices.
But the initiative, pitched as a bid to rein in health care costs, is unlikely to deliver meaningful savings for most patients, because many Americans can obtain medicines at a lower out-of-pocket cost through their health insurance.
“The immediate impact, especially to affordability for patients, is probably pretty muted,” said Jon Roffman, head of global biopharma at health consultancy ZS.
Still, Trump — who has argued Republicans should win the midterm elections on the basis of the most-favored nation deals his administration reached with 16 major drugmakers over the past several months — framed the website as a game changer for patients facing high drug costs.
“We're here this evening to celebrate the launch of one of the most transformative health care initiatives of all time. There's never been anything like it,” Trump said. “Starting tonight, dozens of the most commonly used prescription drugs will be available at dramatic discounts for all consumers.”
A White House fact sheet said that as of Thursday, 40 branded medicines are available to be purchased through the TrumpRx website. The launch medicines are from the first five drugmakers to sign most-favored nation agreements with the Trump administration — AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer.
Many details were unclear, including why more drugs were not included in the launch of the website, and how the prices compare to what consumers can already access through drugmakers’ direct-to-consumer websites or coupons.
Trump said more drugs would soon be added. Last month, HHS released recommendations to drugmakers on how they could sell prescription drugs directly to patients without running into anti-kickback law challenges.
The website is supported by health care company GoodRx, which provides digital discount coupons for drugs that patients can use at the pharmacy counter.
The company said in an email that it is working with drugmakers to “host and operationalize the pricing agreements they have with the administration.”
“TrumpRx does not sell or dispense drugs,” GoodRx said in a press release. “Instead, TrumpRx facilitates consumer access to the selected discount, and then the underlying partner platform executes the pricing.”
Drug pricing experts have questioned if current law allows purchases facilitated by the website to count toward health care deductibles. More Americans have been signing up for high-deductible health care plans in recent years.
“Americans can use TrumpRx to purchase drugs in cash (outside of their insurance),” the website FAQ states.
Jeffrey Singer, a health policy expert at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, said that direct-to-consumer drug sales can help lower prices by exposing patients to the cost of medicines and forcing more price competition.
“But a government-run platform isn’t necessary to achieve that goal,” Singer said in a statement. “Private firms are already expanding direct-to-consumer options, and federal involvement risks crowding out competition and introducing political favoritism into a market that might finally be becoming more consumer-driven.”
Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen also criticized TrumpRx, asserting people without insurance will not be able to afford drug prices sold at a high cash price.
“But drugmakers certainly will appreciate TrumpRx’s free promotion of their products, delivered with a false veneer of price accountability,” Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen Access to Medicines director, said in a statement. “TrumpRx is designed to help Big Pharma keep its prices high by diluting the bargaining power of insurance companies, weakening an important check on pharma.”
Meanwhile, Democrats argue a better approach to lower drug prices in the U.S. is to expand Medicare drug price negotiations established by former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
“The reality is Donald Trump is a paper tiger when it comes to actually lowering prescription drug costs,” Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said at a Wednesday press conference.
But more changes could be on the horizon.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration unveiled a proposed consent agreement with pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts that calls for the drug benefit middleman to provide coverage to TrumpRx offerings if the regulatory and legal landscape allows. That likely means Congress would need to act to open the door to direct-to-consumer drug purchases counting toward health insurance deductibles.
from Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories https://ift.tt/QqCe6US
via IFTTT
0 Commentaires