Editors at National Review Online pan a proposal linked to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at a White House event to announce President Trump’s new prescription-drug-pricing executive order, said he had a “couple of kids who are Democrats, big Bernie Sanders fans,” who had “tears in their eyes” when they heard about the plan.
Under the order, the federal government would establish price targets on prescription drugs. Kennedy as secretary of HHS would set a “mechanism” by which Americans would directly purchase drugs from manufacturers at a “Most-Favored-Nation” price for prescription drugs. Effectively, this would force drug manufacturers to charge the U.S. the lowest price of any country. …
… Such a sweeping assertion of executive power is sure to face a robust legal challenge, so it’s questionable whether it would ever go into effect. In 2020, when Trump issued a similar rule toward the end of his presidency, it was enjoined by a district court judge. …
… Trump’s approach, even if it weren’t legally suspect, would be destructive on the merits. Breaking down barriers to fair pricing overseas as part of ongoing trade negotiations is one thing. But if the current proposal were ever to be implemented as written, instead of making it so that other countries pay a fairer market price so that drug companies can charge U.S. consumers less, the U.S. would essentially be importing the price controls imposed by other countries with socialized health care systems.
At that point, neither of the options available to drug manufacturers is likely to be good for U.S. consumers. One option would be to simply suspend sales of drugs overseas, allowing them to continue to charge Americans high prices. Another would be to save expenses by pausing the development of new drugs.
