Statement from Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, on  President Trump’s proposal to send $200 gift cards to Seniors:

“Yet again, President Trump is trying to bribe his way to re-election. Sending $200 gift cards to seniors before the election is a poor substitute for continuing to let drug corporations jack up their medicine prices afterwards.

If President Trump were serious about lowering the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, he would have used the last four years to put in place policies that hold drug corporations accountable for price-gouging, and that would finally enable Medicare to negotiate lower prices. Instead, Trump reversed his promise to make Big Pharma negotiate when he refused to take up the Lower Drug Costs Act last December. Since then, seniors have paid millions more out of pocket as drug corporations raised prices by nearly 7% in 2020. Gift cards won’t stop big Pharma from doing the same thing in 2021, leaving seniors and everyone else in the lurch.

Americans need serious reforms that check Pharma’s power to charge whatever they want and to increase prices any time. We don’t need more PR stunts designed to distract us from the reality that President Trump has done more to help the drug corporations with big tax breaks than he has to help seniors struggling to afford medicine.”