The cost of medication in this country is too high. And Texas is no exception.
This week, state senators have a hearing about what’s driving healthcare and health insurance costs. One good place for them to start is to follow the lead President Trump set up for them. This starts with drugs, an area where Trump has already made groundbreaking progress.
I have been battling the high cost of pharmaceuticals and their stranglehold on the FDA preventing beneficial alternatives for over 20 years. I am a disabled veteran and was given three to six months to live in 2004; the pharmaceutical companies have made sure my life-saving supplements are not covered.
In 2017 I was in a catastrophic car accident. I broke 38 bones, had 17 surgeries over five days, and died four times. Once again, my wife and I have faced the gauntlet that is the Big Pharma stranglehold, this time in the outrageous cost of medicines needed from the accident and injuries which have left me in a wheelchair. I spent months in the hospital and pay over $600 per month on medications just to stay alive.
Due to these medical expenses, my wife and I have struggled financially for many years. God has blessed us with a wonderful family, including five children and five grandchildren. If it wasn’t for our faith and our family, it would be hard to get up on a lot of days. We lead – virtually – mission work in India, which helps with purpose.
This year, for the first time that I can remember, my medication prices dropped. There’s one person to thank for that, and he is the current resident of the White House. I also know that his supporters, like Sen. Ted Cruz and Attorney General Ken Paxton, are doing their part to ensure that more Americans can afford necessary treatments.
I’m not alone in this gratitude. Millions of people will likely benefit from Trump’s pharma negotiations, as well as things like his recent TrumpRx announcement adding 600 new drugs to the forthcoming website. The president’s new platform will help Texans put a dent in Big Pharma’s pricing scheme.
Trump and his allies here in Texas have also gone further by addressing a major driver of healthcare costs that most politicians miss – the impact of illegal immigration. As the open borders group National Immigration Law Center notes, federal law requires emergency rooms to treat all people, no matter what. An influx of poor illegal immigrants into the healthcare system means that the cost of their care, from the ER bed to the drugs they use, is shifted to those who can afford to pay, either out of pocket or through their insurance.
The costs don’t stop at your bank account, either. The NILC reports that Washington pays hospitals to “provide emergency treatment to people who are not eligible for Medicaid due to their immigration status.” This means you pay for that treatment every April 15.
And then there are the illnesses and diseases that we eradicated but which these immigrants, through no fault of their own, carry across the border.
Who benefits most from this dysfunctional system? Not the American taxpayer or immigrants. It’s Big Pharma, whose executives position themselves as saviors of the poor and disadvantaged but also just so happen to jack up prices every step of the way.
Big drug companies always argue that high prices are necessary to fund research and development for new drugs. I definitely benefit from those groundbreaking medications. But the excuses fall flat when we see astronomical revenues, profits, and executive compensation packages these companies post every year.
State lawmakers have no easy options in front of them as they seek to address America’s healthcare costs, led by sky-high drug prices. But as they dive into this thorny issue this week, they’ll do well to follow the president’s lead. Start by taking a close look at all the factors impacting U.S. healthcare, and we’ll be on the right track.
