Credit where credit is due

Trump appears eager to push forward in his pursuit of lowering drug prices, embracing an idea that is one of the signature proposals of progressives like 2020 Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

[...]

Trump’s own secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, expressed concerns with the idea in a meeting at the White House on Monday, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who chairs the Senate committee overseeing the issue, questioned whether the imported drugs would be safe.

[...]

For [the] proposal to go into effect, the federal secretary of Health and Human Services has to certify that the imported drugs would be safe. No secretary has ever done that before, and the current secretary, Azar, a former pharmaceutical company executive, has voiced reservations over the idea.

  The Hill

That is such bullshit. Canadians routinely take unsafe drugs? Maybe we shouldn't have corporate people in agency positions.

After Trump’s embrace of the idea, Azar’s comments were far more positive than they were last year, when he called the idea a “gimmick” that would not work.

[...]

[But] the plan faces strong skepticism from Trump’s own party.

Of course it does. They get big money from Big Pharma.

It is not the first time that Trump has bucked the traditional GOP position on drug pricing. Last year, he proposed basing certain Medicare drug prices off of lower prices paid in Europe, something that has drawn criticism from many GOP lawmakers.

[...]

A handful of other Republicans also support importation, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who could help build support for the idea after taking over the committee this year for former Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Hatch was seen as a staunch defender of the pharmaceutical industry, which strongly opposes the plan.

[...]

Democrats, though, have long complained that Trump does not back up his words with action and are skeptical he will follow through with his various plans.

Reasonable and well-founded skepticism.

Whether drug importation, if implemented, would actually cut drug prices in a significant way is also an open question. Rachel Sachs, a drug pricing expert at Washington University in St. Louis, said it is possible that drug companies or foreign governments could throw up obstacles to Americans buying drugs at cheaper prices abroad.

Possible?  I'd say it's a sure bet drug companies will throw every wrench they have.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.