With declining approval ratings over the cost-of-living crisis, Trump is desperate to win back working-class Americans. How best to do so? By appearing to “take on” Big Pharma.
Last month, Trump launched TrumpRx, a platform where you can supposedly access necessary medications at affordable prices. But with limited offerings, meager discounts, and no insurance coverage for the listings, the website is more of an insulting joke than a solution for extortionate healthcare costs.
Pharmaceutical companies have been gouging US workers for years, saddling Americans with the highest annual prescription drug spending in the world at $1,713 per person. US drug prices are almost three times as expensive as in other countries, with name-brand drug prices more than quadrupled. One-in-three Americans report being unable to take their prescribed medication because of cost.
Enter TrumpRx. Between the images of a gilded eagle and a golden United States within a blank globe, the website proudly boasts: “Thanks to President Trump, the days of Big Pharma price-gouging are over. Leveraging the full weight and power of the United States of America, the President has ensured every American gets the lowest prices on prescription medications in the developed world.”
For reference, the FDA has approved over 23,000 different prescription drugs. The most prescribed medications address cholesterol, blood pressure, thyroid complications, diabetes, asthma, depression, inflammation and pain relief, infection, etc. Yet the site offers just 43 prescription medications—mostly weight-loss and fertility drugs!
As of late February, the discounts are only available for patients paying out of pocket. Even with discounts, many of the medications still cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per month, which remains painfully out of reach for many. Additionally, many of these name-brand medications have generic equivalents which are already available on the market for cheaper. Unbranded generic drugs make up 90% of the drugs prescribed and purchased in the US, while the more expensive name-brand drugs account for only 7%.
In his inimitable hyperbolic style, Trump is calling this the “largest reduction in prescription drug prices in history by many, many times.” “We’re gonna get the drug prices down … 1,000%, 600%, 500%, 1,500%—numbers that are not even thought to be achievable.”
In reality, Trump’s “Most Favored Nation” price scheme looks very similar to GoodRx, a long-standing discount prescription company. Turns out, GoodRx is a “key integration partner” for TrumpRx! The presidential version is just a more expensive knock-off with fewer products. It consists of deals with large drug manufacturers like AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Novo Nordisk to skirt tariffs—guaranteeing their continued access to US consumers. So much for taking on Big Pharma!
Communists support dramatically lowering or altogether waiving healthcare and medication costs to secure better living conditions for the working class. The only way to ensure that medication is available to everyone who needs it is to take profits out of healthcare by expropriating the big pharmaceutical and medical companies under workers’ control, and establishing a democratically run, socialized healthcare system.