patrick.net

Two things became apparent this week after a federal judge blocked President Trump’s requirement that drug prices be disclosed in TV commercials — a move intended to shame pharmaceutical companies into being friendlier to patients. ...

Trump’s price-disclosure rule was challenged in court by our friends at Merck, Eli Lilly and Amgen, who argued that the White House was overstepping its bounds and that the companies’ 1st Amendment rights were being violated.

They also maintained that the requirement would “confuse” patients by forcing disclosure of a list price that may not be anywhere close to the price negotiated by insurers. ...

If you believe that drug companies “put patients first” and are committed to “lowering out-of-pocket costs for Americans,” you can stop reading right now.

If, on the other hand, your experience of the pharmaceutical industry has been one of unmitigated greed and insensitivity toward some of the most vulnerable members of society, by all means read on.

Drug companies don’t give two figs about upholding free-speech rights and they don’t care about safeguarding patients from confusion. They care about sales. And the reason they don’t like having to disclose prices in their ubiquitous TV ads is because the last thing they want people thinking about is how badly they’re being ripped off for name-brand medicine.