Petition to Congress:
"Support the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2017, which would allow the government to negotiate directly with drug companies to lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries, much like the Veterans Health Administration and Medicaid do today."
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Donald Trump spent most of 2016 insisting he would attack the pharmaceutical drug companies behind skyrocketing prices. But ever since he seized office, he has been unsurprisingly missing in action.1
Congressional Democrats who actually care about sick people have tried repeatedly to get Trump’s attention, and he has ignored them. Instead, the Trump regime has announced plans “hitting everybody except the drug industry.”2
Now, Sen. Bernie Sanders and other progressive champions have introduced a bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug price discounts.3 If they can shame Trump into helping, it would be a win for struggling Americans – and if not, they will expose Trump as a phony puppet of Big Pharma. But to do it, they need our help.
Americans still pay the highest prices in the world for pharmaceutical drugs, and too many still must choose between groceries and medicine. Trumpcare and the Trump Tax Scam have made it clear that Republicans are the party of no health care. Democrats need to be the party of better health care. Defending American patients from Big Pharma price-gouging is a big part of that, and this legislation from Rep. Elijah Cummings, Sen. Bernie Sanders and more is a great place to start.4
One of the simplest – and most popular – ways to start cracking down on Big Pharma is simply to allow Medicare to negotiate discounts for pharmaceutical drugs. Congress has barred Medicare from negotiating the best possible price, leaving the program paying more for drugs than the Veterans Health Administration or Medicaid even though it accounts for around one-third of all pharmaceutical sales.5 It’s nothing more than a taxpayer giveaway to well-heeled pharmaceutical companies, and it’s got to stop.
CREDO members have been a potent force in support of taking on Big Pharma monopolies and Medicare for All. Now, we have a chance to expose Trump on one of the clearest and simplest issues in politics today. Every person who supports this bill helps show that Trump is nothing more than a scam artist defending wealthy special interests.
Big Pharma is profitable and still produces new drugs. The problem is that these monopolies have zero incentive to lower profits. New treatments debut at sky-high prices, while even old generic drugs have seen price increases. In recent years, prices have gone up 12 percent on average – at times over 1,000 percent – even though Americans already pay the highest prices for prescription drugs of anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry is spending millions on marketing and lobbyists to protect its unfair monopolies.
We always knew Trump was a fake populist who only cared about enriching his friends and glorifying himself. But throughout his campaign, he took the overwhelmingly popular side. Now that he has seized power, he has reversed course and taken Big Pharma’s side on every measure where it counts. We need to call out his phony populism now.
Stand with Sen. Sanders: Let Medicare negotiate drug prices. Click below to sign the petition:
-Murshed Zaheed, Political Director
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