Probe says US overspent on ventilators
WASHINGTON – An investigation released Friday by House Democrats says President Donald Trump’s administration overpaid by up to $500 million on ventilators as the coronavirus first struck the U.S.
In a review of thousands of pages of internal administration documents, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said Philips North America was contracted to deliver 43,000 ventilators to the federal government for a significantly higher price than it did under previous contracts for functionally identical ventilator models delivered under contracts dating to President Barack Obama’s administration.
“The American people got ripped off, and Donald Trump and his team got taken to the cleaners,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., whose subcommittee led the investigation. “The Trump Administration’s mishandling of ventilator procurement for the nation’s stockpile cost the American people dearly during the worst public health crisis of our generation.”
Democrats called for Philips to return the amount of money they said the government was overcharged.
Phillips denied the report’s findings, saying the company did not raise prices in relation to the pandemic, and argued the increased price of the ventilators actually represented a “discount.”
According to Philips, the list price of the ventilator ordered under the contract is $21,000 and was supplied to the Trump administration for $15,000, which the company called a “discount” given the rushed production schedule.
The report, however, disagreed with Philips’ claim. A functionally identical ventilator was delivered to the Obama administration under a 2014 contract for $3,280. Based on the report’s review of purchases between December 2019 and May 2020, other small purchasers, even those that purchased only one ventilator of the same model, secured them for as low as $9,327.
“No American purchaser paid more than the U.S. government,” the report said.