WASHINGTON, DC – The following statement was issued by David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, on President Trump’s announcement that he will send $200 discount cards to 33 million Medicare beneficiaries:
“If the president had kept his commitment to lower prescription drug prices, he wouldn’t need to promise some Medicare beneficiaries a dubious discount card days before an election.
“It is not at all clear if this is legal or how the president will pay for his scheme. It is perfectly clear, however, that this will not lower prescription drug prices for 328 million Americans.
“Americans need systemic, enduring reforms to our rigged drug pricing system, not election year gimmicks.”
BACKGROUND
- Today President Trump promised to send $200 checks to cover prescription drug expenses for 33 million Medicare beneficiaries.
- The Trump administration announced the checks would be paid for by the president’s most-favored nation proposal, which has yet to beenacted — nor has a plan been released for its enactment.
- Drug prices continue to rise, with more than 500 drugs seeing a price increase in the first week of January. In the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, drug companies raised the prices of nearly 250 additional drugs.
- Patients are suffering — nearly one in three Americans report not taking their medication as prescribed due to price.
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