Agenda47 on healthcare: How Donald Trump says he'd address drug prices, addiction crisis
As former President Donald Trump hits the campaign trail, he has stirred controversy spending time attacking his opponents instead of wading through policy debates on issues like healthcare.
Agenda47 is Trump's official campaign platform for the 2024 election. It is separate from the oft-mentioned Project 2025, but proposes his plans for crime, immigration and other issues.
While Trump's proposals on healthcare are slim, he has put forward a few policies focused on drug shortages, prices and addiction. The U.S. faces an uphill battle against private, for-profit pharmaceutical companies that develop our drug supply, according to Colleen Grogan, a professor at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.
"Pharmaceutical companies have a lot of political power," Grogan told USA TODAY in an interview. "What we've told the American people is 'We pay really high drug prices for innovation'...it's not true."
Here is what we know about some of Trump's healthcare plans, according to Agenda47.
Agenda47 on crime: Trump proposes death-penalty for drug dealers, requiring stop and frisk
Bring pharmaceutical production back to U.S.
"President Trump will restore his Executive Order 13944, dated August 6, 2020, on Ensuring Essential Medicines, Medical Countermeasures, and Critical Inputs Are Made in the United States."
How we got here: The executive order here cites the Defense Production Act, giving the president power to make private industries produce goods needed for national defense. In 2020, this executive order came at a time when the U.S. struggled to get tests and protective equipment during the COVID19 pandemic. Biden has since used the same act to aid vaccine production, a baby-formula shortage and mineral production for electric car batteries.
In today's context: Earlier this year, drug shortages surpassed the previous 2014 high, with chemotherapy drugs, semaglutides such as Wegovy and ADHD medication being in short supply. Biden's administration said in September 2023 he was exploring ways to bring more manufacturing back to the U.S., among other potential solutions. Grogan said some shortages, like that of insulin, are partly driven by the drug's low profit. California has tried to address this issue by contracting a company to make its own insulin.
More: A short supply of cancer drugs has doctors and patients worried: 'We're at a critical juncture'
Get tough on pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices
On Day One, Trump said he will sign an Executive Order to end global freeloading on American consumers once and for all.
“Under my policy, the United States government will tell Big Pharma that we will only pay the best price they offer to foreign nations, who have been taking advantage of us for so long— the United States is tired of getting ripped off.”
How we got here: Americans pay high prices for prescription drugs compared to other countries. An analysis across generic and brand drugs in 2022 shows U.S. prices were 2.78 times as high compared to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2020, Trump announced the "Most Favored Nation" system, which would have made an international reference price for some Medicare-covered drugs and required manufacturers to disclose drug prices in TV ads, according to health policy research and news organization KFF. Both measures were blocked in court. Trump also created a new way to get drugs from Canada, according to KFF.
In today's context: The Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. It expanded Medicare benefits to cap out-of-pocket drug prices and insulin. It also allows the federal government to negotiate Medicare's most expensive drug prices, reversing a George W. Bush-era law that prohibited the government from being able to negotiate. Big Pharma has fought the negotiations in court. The first 10 drugs that are planned to be negotiated will go into effect January 2026.
Grogan called the Inflation Reduction Act an "important first step," as it only applies to 10 drugs to start. But she also said Medicare negotiating prices down could give private insurers more negotiating power for drug prices for the under-65 populations.
'Eradicate the drug addiction crisis in America'
Trump says he will do this by cracking down on cartels, imposing the death penalty on drug dealers, threatening China about exporting fentanyl, designate fentanyl as a controlled substance, and provide more treatments and social support for those struggling with addiction.
How we got here: Drug addiction and overdose has been a growing problem over the last decade, with opioid addiction evolving with different substances such as fentanyl and methamphetamine. The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the deadliest worldwide fentanyl trafficking organizations, and in 2017, federal law enforcement agencies started to ramp up efforts to hold traffickers accountable. Evidence is increasingly suggesting addiction is a chronic disease, and that quitting is not a sudden process. USA TODAY previously reported more severe punishment for crime does not help deter it from happening in the first place. Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency in 2017 and passed bipartisan Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities (SUPPORT) Act in 2018, according to KFF.
In today's context: In July, two alleged leaders of Sinaloa Cartel were arrested. Biden has increased access to treatment and Narcan to reverse overdoses, KFF reported. He also put forward recent proposals to crack down on fentanyl trafficking by reclassifying the drug for harsher penalties, giving border officials tools to track smaller shipments and make a national pill press registry.
Contributing: Michael Collins, Anthony Robledo, Ken Alltucker, Eduardo Cuevas, Rebecca Morin, Donovan Slack, Lauren Villagran, Josh Meyer, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Agenda47 on healthcare: Trump's proposal on lowering drug prices
