American Action Forum: Six Challenges Facing President Trump's Drug Importation Plan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 -- The American Action Forum issued the following news release:

Earlier this week, the Trump Administration released its plan for allowing the importation of drugs from Canada. AAF's Deputy Director of Health Care Policy Tara O'Neill Hayes has analyzed the proposal, and she concludes that the plan likely will not reduce drug prices much, if at all, in the United States.

O'Neill Hayes outlines six distinct challenges. These include:

* Canada has a much smaller population and lower utilization of prescription drugs, and as a result the number of drugs available for importation is likely to be very low;

* Many other countries do not have drugs that are the most expensive in the United States, and thus these drugs are not available for importation; and

* The plan excludes from importation the vast majority of the most expensive drugs, severely limiting the ability to achieve significant savings.

Read the analysis (https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/obstacles-to-success-of-the-drug-importation-plan/).