Confident in their ability to keep Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell on their side and protecting them no matter what they do, a bevy of drugmakers have celebrated the new year with price hikes on more than 200 prescription drugs.
That's from information from the drugmakers themselves and from a healthcare research firm called 3 Axis Advisors. Among the companies raising prescription drug prices are Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi. The price hikes are almost entirely under 10%, showing a modicum of control by the companies, falling mostly in the range of 4-6%. More price increases from more companies are expected to be announced by the end of this week.
This against the backdrop of a citizenry increasingly angered by a decade of price hikes; curbing those costs tops voters’ concerns in polling on healthcare issues. Fully one-quarter of people taking prescription drugs report that the cost of drugs makes it difficult to afford them, and 10% say it is "very difficult" to afford them.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are working together to block legislation passed by House Democrats to lower prescription drug prices and to keep drug companies from charging Americans more than people pay for drugs in other countries. That's not a good look for Republicans. Nor is it a good look for Big Pharma.
It is, however, one more element in what is a very strong case for Democrats in 2020.
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