Health wonks question who saves in Trump drug program

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President Trump took a victory lap on his administration’s work on drug pricing today, announcing all 50 states will participate in the “most-favored-nation” program, saying “this one thing alone should win us the midterms.”
But health policy experts question whether the changes will directly save consumers money, and for how long. The White House estimates federal and state governments will save $64.3 billion from most-favored-nation pricing, but experts say that won’t necessarily change the price Medicaid beneficiaries pay for their medicines.
“It’s worth being super-explicit: If you are a Medicaid patient, these drugs are already cheap. GENEROUS is not going to make medicines more affordable,” said Brian Reid, principal at health consultancy Reid Strategic, referring to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services program. “The best-case scenario is that there is a small benefit to the Medicaid programs themselves. But I haven’t seen anyone suggest that this would make a whit of difference for patients.”
There are also other outstanding questions such as which specific drugs are included in the effort and which states will take the pricing for which drugs.
Peter Maybarduk, Access to Medicines director for Public Citizen, also said the Trump administration’s 10-year estimate is questionable, in part because the confidential drug pricing deals could remain in place only through the end of Trump’s term.

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