Critics blast Trump's 'math'
- President Donald Trump defended his claim that his administration cut prescription drug prices by “500%, 600%” at an April 23 White House event with Regeneron and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Kennedy had made the same argument a day earlier to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, saying a drug falling from $600 to $10 was a “600% reduction,” though PolitiFact calculated it as 98.3%. - The dispute lands as fact-checkers say TrumpRx discounts cover only a limited set of cash-price drugs, not broad U.S. prescription costs. (factcheck.org)
President Donald Trump defended his claim that his administration cut prescription drug prices by “500%, 600%” during an April 23 White House event announcing a Regeneron pricing deal. (usnews.com) Trump said the figures reflected “a different kind of calculation” and added that “we also sometimes say 50%, 60%” because “people understand that better.” The Associated Press reported that cuts above 100% would require a price to fall below zero. (usnews.com) The day before, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used the same defense in Senate Finance Committee testimony after Sen. Elizabeth Warren challenged Trump’s claims about TrumpRx discounts. (politifact.com) Kennedy said that if a drug price fell from $600 to $10, that was a “600% reduction.” PolitiFact said the correct percentage decrease is 98.3%, calculated by dividing the $590 drop by the original $600 price. (politifact.com) That fight over arithmetic sits inside a broader argument about what the administration’s drug-price program has actually changed. FactCheck.org reported in February that TrumpRx offers discounted cash prices on a small number of brand-name drugs, with no evidence yet of broad price declines across the market. (factcheck.org) FactCheck.org said the administration had voluntary agreements with 16 drugmakers, and that the discounts mainly applied to people paying cash rather than using insurance. It also noted that there is no single national measure that cleanly captures what Americans broadly pay for drugs. (factcheck.org) The White House has argued that its approach compares U.S. prices with higher foreign reference prices and reflects the size of the gap it is trying to close. But independent fact-checkers and math experts cited by PolitiFact said percentage decreases have one standard formula. (politifact.com) (factcheck.org) For now, the administration is still promoting individual company deals while critics keep returning to the same point: a drug can get cheaper, but not by more than 100% unless the seller starts paying the buyer. (usnews.com) (politifact.com)
