Trump’s proposals on drug prices deserve bipartisan support

Regarding “2019 will reveal more answers on Trump’s strategy to fight high drug prices” (Jan. 14, p. 16), although I’m a longtime Republican, I generally don’t support President Donald Trump’s legislative policies. But I enthusiastically endorse his efforts to lower drug costs, including the initiative announced last fall to tie the Medicare price of drugs to the lowest prices in other nations.

Before retiring, I was a senior executive with large for-profit healthcare group purchasing organizations, working to bring down drug prices for large hospital chains. We did so relative to what they could do on their own, but our pricing was still much higher than in other countries.

Trump is pushing “most favored nation” pricing for Medicare drugs. We should all support his efforts and ask that the initiative be expanded to cover all drugs. It makes absolutely no sense for U.S. citizens to be supporting drug research (through our excessively priced drugs), benefiting the entire world including developed nations with significantly better standards of living than many parts of our own country and much lower drug pricing.

Let’s see if Congress will back him on a rare bipartisan basis. My bet is that lobbyist money will ultimately win the battle, but you never know.

Jack Bernard Peachtree City, Ga.