The Rhetorical Transformations and Policy Failures of Prescription Drug Pricing Reform under the Trump Administration

Abstract

Abstract Throughout his four years in office, President Trump made prescription drug pricing a focus of his policy agenda. President Trump not only used strong language to criticize the pharmaceutical industry and its practices but also introduced ambitious reform policies that had previously lacked acceptance among Republican policy makers. President Trump appears to have been successful in developing a new populist form of rhetoric that Republicans can use in support of novel drug pricing reforms such as the ones his administration considered. From a policy perspective, however, the Trump administration failed to implement any of their more ambitious reform ideas. This article considers three of the Trump administration's signature policies—state-sponsored prescription drug importation, Medicare Part B international reference pricing, and reforms to the Medicare Part D rebate system—and explores how they represent both the political ambitions and policy failures of the Trump administration. The fate of the Trump administration's prescription drug proposals also reveals lessons about innovation and access, which will be important to ongoing drug pricing reform efforts.