Washington, D.C. — Today, in their latest bout of political theater, Trump’s CMS announced the GLOBE drug pricing demo, which will do little to nothing to lower costs for seniors and working families. The demo, supposedly designed to lower Medicare drug costs, are rendered useless by Trump’s shady backroom deals with big drug companies. Trump refused to make the details of his secret agreements clear and now recent reporting suggests they grant drug companies exemptions from Medicare “most-favored-nation” (MFN) drug pricing demos. By exempting these drug companies from demos, the Trump administration likely guaranteed that seniors will not see most-favored-nation pricing on drugs that make up 90% of the market and undermined their own efforts. A recent analysis from STAT revealed that the projected savings of GLOBE and GUARD could fall by as much as 80% thanks to Trump’s secret deals with over two dozen drug companies. Meanwhile, drug prices are skyrocketing for American families, with 43% of adults struggling to afford their medications as prescribed and fewer than half of Americans are able to afford quality healthcare.
Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach released the following statement:
“It must be Groundhog Day as Donald Trump delivers another sham drug pricing announcement. He can’t claim to be reducing drug prices while conveniently offering loopholes to big drug companies that allow them to evade lower prices. In reality, Trump and Republicans have only made it harder for seniors and working families to afford their prescription drugs. At every turn, he’s protected corporate profits over people’s health care, cutting secret deals with big drug companies and handing them tax break after tax break. Today’s announcement is nothing but a desperate attempt to save face, and working families see right through it.”
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