Discover how Vice President Kamala Harris slammed former President Donald Trump over his unfulfilled promise to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices during the recent ABC News presidential debate. Harris emphasized that while Trump made the promise, it was the current administration that took action.
Trump’s repeated assurances during his 2016 campaign to lower drug prices by allowing the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies never materialized during his presidency. Instead, smaller, temporary programs were introduced that fell short of the proposed Medicare drug price negotiation policy included in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed in August 2022, authorizes Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, aiming to leverage its buying power to secure better deals. The initial negotiations have already resulted in significant discounts on 10 drugs, with projected savings of billions for Medicare and its beneficiaries.
Despite Trump’s campaign promises, he failed to enact any meaningful policy to lower drug prices through negotiations with manufacturers. Harris’s claim that Trump never fulfilled his commitment to open Medicare to drug price negotiations is proven to be true, highlighting the stark contrast between rhetoric and reality.
