9 November 2018 - President Trump announced late last month that his administration will push back on high drug costs through a number of proposals, including linking Medicare Part B prices to an international pricing index that includes 16 other countries and by requiring pharmaceutical companies to include drugs’ list prices in TV ads, the second of which later passed the Senate as an amendment to the latest appropriations package of $1 million to the Department of Health and Human Services.

While the first idea is a potential solution to high drug prices, displaying the list price of a drug on every TV ad will be ineffective in terms of reducing drug prices — and is likely to backfire. 

Though it sounds beneficial to force accountability on drug companies right before the midterm elections, this rule would ultimately do more harm than good.

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