Radicalism won’t cure health care system

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The Democrats keep promising to “fix” our health care system, but they’re too late — President Trump’s policies are already making health care considerably more affordable, accessible, and effective.

According to a recent report from White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), prescription drug prices in the U.S. have fallen by more than 11% under the Trump administration — a historic feat that the CEA attributed to President Trump’s groundbreaking health care policies, specifically the 2017 Drug Competition Action Plan and the 2018 Strategic Policy Roadmap.

“We estimate that the results of these actions will save consumers almost 10% on retail prescription drugs, which results in an increase of $32 billion per year in the purchasing power of the incomes of Americans (including both consumers and producers),” the CEA report noted.

Of course, this milestone should hardly come as a surprise — the president has repeatedly pledged to lower health care costs for Americans and reverse the decades-old trend of skyrocketing prescription drug prices. In response to one of his earliest directives, for instance, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a record number of affordable, generic drugs in order to lower prices through increased competition.

The feds are also cracking down on price-fixing among makers of generic drugs, supporting Ohio’s efforts to hold unscrupulous drug makers accountable in court.

“One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs,” President Trump noted in 2018, vowing that “Prices will come down.”

Yet another promise kept.

But while the president is busy bringing about the first reduction in prescription drug prices since 1972, the Democrats are pitching radical big-government proposals that would devastate our country’s health care system.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, for instance, supports a complete government takeover of the health care system from top to bottom — even though he still doesn’t know how to pay for the $30 trillion cost of his “Medicare-for-All” plan.

Even after accounting for the massive tax hikes that Sanders wants to impose on working Americans, he would still come a whopping $25 trillion short of paying for his entire socialist policy agenda.

Regrettably, while the other Democrat candidates are quick to criticize him on the debate stage, they’re all equally out of touch with America’s health care needs. Instead of looking to the example that’s right in front of them — President Trump’s successful campaign to lower prescription drug prices — they simply present watered-down versions of Sanders’ program that would create the same problems.

Let’s not forget that the last time the Democrats got a chance to meddle with America’s health care system, we got President Obama’s disastrous Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which only exacerbated the outrageous cost inflation that the Trump administration has finally gotten under control.

Now that Ohioans are no longer legally required to purchase expensive Obamacare policies, enrollment is plummeting as people vote with their feet. In 2019, enrollment declined by 10% in our state, with nearly 25,000 fewer people opting for a government health care plan.

The Supreme Court has just agreed to hear a momentous case against Obamacare that could invalidate the entire law, opening the door for Republicans to craft a replacement that protects low-income Americans and people with preexisting conditions without imposing unaffordable burdens on ordinary taxpayers.

The Democrats keep promising to “fix” our health care system, but their extremist “solutions” have been demonstrably debunked. Donald Trump is the only presidential candidate who has actually managed to make health care more affordable for millions of Americans in Ohio and across the country.

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By Bob Paduchik

Guest Columnist

Bob Paduchik is a senior advisor to the Trump 2020 Campaign and is the former co-chairman of the Republican National Committee. He resides in Genoa Township in Delaware County.

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