Donald Trump Is Losing On An Issue Voters Care A Lot About. Here ’s How He’s Trying to Change That

With nearly 200,000 Americans dead from COVID-19 and millions more who lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs this year, President Donald Trump tried this week—as he has done throughout his presidency—to change the conversation. On Sunday, the President issued a new executive order aimed at lowering prescription drug prices, an issue dear to many voters, and boasted on Twitter that “prices are coming down FAST.” The reality is more complicated. Trump’s new executive order, which revokes and replaces a different executive order on drug prices that he signed in July, directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to start testing how it would work to require Medicare to pay the same price for certain prescription drugs as other developed nations, which often pay less for the same medications. In a made-for-2020 twist, the order relies on the HHS secretary invoking an office established under the Affordable Care Act, the bête noire of the Trump Administration. The President’s new order received immediate pushback from pharmaceutical companies, which will likely challenge it in court and delay any implementation for months or years. Health care experts agreed the order—and especially Trump’s repeated insistence that it will have an immediate impact on drug prices—was largely political posturing. “While this proposal isn’t too big, it is too late to get it done before the election,&...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized 2020 Election COVID-19 Explainer News Source Type: news