Donald Trump’s math on cutting drug prices didn’t add up. Again.
The president this weekend repeated his promise to get pharma companies to lower the cost of medications for Americans, who often have to pay much more for certain drugs than people abroad.
But the actual amount of the “tremendous drop” in cost that Trump boasted about had critics scratching their heads.
“You know, we’ve cut drug prices by 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500%,” Trump said.
“I don’t mean 50%. I mean 14, 1,500%,” he added.
But as many on social media pointed out, that would mean all drugs are free and people actually get paid to receive them.
Also, drug prices haven’t actually come down, despite Trump’s pressure on pharmaceutical companies. Trump appeared to acknowledge that when he later said, “We’ll be dropping drug prices ... by 1,200, 1,300 and even 1,400% and 500% but not just 50% or 25%, which normally would be a lot because the rest of the world pays much less for the identical drug.”
Reality is “eroding before our eyes,” said one critic. Others agreed.
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