| Dear Katy, There are few smarter or more popular ideas than lowering drug prices by allowing Medicare to negotiate bulk discounts.1 No wonder even Donald Trump has made noise about cracking down on Big Pharma. But so far, he's produced yet another of the scams that mark his business and political career: lots of populist talk, while rich buddies get all the benefits. In fact, the Trump regime has "yet to propose anything that would really threaten the pharmaceutical industry."2 Rep. Lloyd Doggett and more than 80 Democrats, on the other hand, have introduced a bill taking on Big Pharma and authorizing Medicare to negotiate discounts4 – and they need our help. Resist Trump's Big Pharma scam. Tell Congress to let Medicare negotiate drug prices. Click here to sign the petition. Big Pharma repeatedly threatens to take medicine off the market if the government starts negotiating discounts. These callous threats are enough to make many Americans nervous. But the new Democratic bill has real teeth – if Big Pharma refuses to negotiate in good faith, the government could issue a license to a competitor to produce a generic version of the drug.5 Republicans have stubbornly defended their Big Pharma backers for years and prevented Medicare from even attempting to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. Trump made a lot of noise – and sent a few rambling tweets – but as always, when the going gets tough, Trump gets with the richest and most powerful. Nothing his regime has done would lower drug prices – Pfizer even announced price increases right as Trump was bragging about forthcoming price cuts.6 Americans pay the highest prices for prescription drugs of anywhere in the world. In fact, we not only pay high prices for desperately needed medication, but our tax dollars also pay for the research that makes Big Pharma so rich. No wonder permitting negotiation is so popular.7 This bill is what real resistance to the Trump-Big Pharma alliance looks like. We need to give it our support in order to expose Trump's drug price hypocrisy and show that progressives have real solutions to the problems America faces. Resist Trump's Big Pharma scam. Tell Congress to let Medicare negotiate drug prices. Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/doggett_part_d?t=7&akid=29545%2E12967895%2ELOXx-e Thank you for speaking out, Josh Nelson, Co-Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Nancy Altman, "Democrats have a Medicare negotiation plan that terrifies Big Pharma," The Hill, July 30, 2018.
- Dylan Scott, "Donald Trump's phony war on high prescription drug prices, explained," Vox, July 13, 2018.
- Altman, "Democrats have a Medicare negotiation plan that terrifies Big Pharma."
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Scott, "Donald Trump's phony war on high prescription drug prices, explained."
- Altman, "Democrats have a Medicare negotiation plan that terrifies Big Pharma."
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment