美国国家公共电台 NPR Medicare Should Leverage Buying Power To Pull Down Drug Prices, White House Says

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Let's examine now the contradictory¹ statements the president has made about drug prices. He has said he wants the U.S. government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare, but he's made other statements that seem opposite to that. Here's NPR's Alison Kodjak.

ALISON KODJAK, BYLINE²: Drug makers³ could be forgiven if they're confused about whether the president thinks the government should get involved in price negotiations⁵. Just a few days before he was sworn in, he made this promise.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP⁶: We're the largest buyer of drugs in the world and yet we don't bid properly. And we're going to start bidding. And we're going to save billions of dollars over a period of time.

KODJAK: But last week, he seemed to walk that back when he met with the leaders of several giant pharmaceutical⁷ companies.

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TRUMP: I'll oppose anything that makes it harder for smaller, younger companies to take the risk of bringing their product to a vibrantly⁸ competitive market. That includes price fixing by the biggest dog in the market, Medicare, which is what's happening.

KODJAK: So yesterday, his spokesman, Sean Spicer, cleared up the confusion, for now at least. He was asked whether the president was for Medicare negotiating lower prices.

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SEAN SPICER: He's for it, yes. He wants to make...

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He's still for it.

SPICER: Absolutely.

KODJAK: And he went on to say that the U.S. should be doing what other countries do, bring the government's purchasing power to bear to get a better deal.

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SPICER: So his commitment is to make sure that he does what he can and, I think, rather successfully uses his skills as a businessman to drive them down.

KODJAK: But will that actually save money?

WALID GELLAD: There's a reason why the pharmaceutical industry does not want Medicare negotiation⁴ to happen and the obvious reason is because it will lower prices.

KODJAK: That's Walid Gellad, who studies drug pricing and policy at the University of Pittsburgh. He says the key to Trump's plan is for Congress to allow Medicare as a whole to negotiate a good price or walk away. That's already allowed at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

GELLAD: If Medicare were to get the same prices for drugs as in the VA, you'd have billions - tens of billions in dollars of savings⁹.

KODJAK: Today, insurers that handle Medicare prescription¹⁰ coverage¹¹ negotiate separately thanks to a law passed by Congress in 2003. Alison Kodjak, NPR News, Washington.