President Trump, don't embrace left-wing ideas to get something done on drug prices

In a recent column, I explained why the president and Republicans are on their way to a stunning victory in 2020. I predicted that a big factor in this victory will be the clear juxtaposition between the president’s methodical, step-by-step approach to lower health care costs with more transparency, choice, and accountability and the Democrats’ calls for radical change that would throw people off of their private insurance and replace it with a government-run monopoly.

In this column, I want to sound a warning about how things could go wrong, particularly when it comes to the president’s efforts to lower prescription drug prices.

Until a few days ago, I would have argued confidently that the president and Republicans were well situated to win on the issue of drug prices in 2020.

A record number of generic drugs were approved by the FDA in 2017, saving consumers nearly $16 billion with lower-priced alternatives. The Republican Congress also passed, and the president signed, a bill lifting the pharmacy “gag clauses” that prevented pharmacists from informing patients if they could pay less for a medicine by paying cash instead of going through insurance (some generic drugs are so cheap that they can cost less than a co-pay).

This early progress has led to a stunning result: for the first time in nearly 50 years, the consumer price index for prescription drugs is falling.