Trump kills key drug price proposal he once embraced
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The Trump administration has withdrawn a key proposal to lower drug prices, which its top health official had touted seven months ago as the most effective way to curb medicine costs for consumers.
The drug rebate rule would have ended a widespread practice in which drugmakers give rebates to insurance middlemen in government programs such as Medicare. The idea was to channel that money to consumers instead.
The proposed rule was the second major Trump drug pricing effort to collapse this week after a federal judge blocked an administration rule that would have required drugmakers to disclose the list prices of their medicines in television ads. Together, they complicate the administration’s efforts to lower prescription drug costs, potentially undermining one of President Trump’s main campaign promises as he seeks a second term.
The withdrawal of the plan is expected to put pressure on administration officials to pursue more populist proposals, from importing lower-cost drugs from other countries to basing the prices of some Medicare drugs on the lower prices paid by other countries — ideas favored by the president but reviled by the drug industry and many Republicans.
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