This Is Not The Change You Are Looking For

NEW: Trump is considering executive action to cut drug prices ahead of the 2020 election, officials familiar with the matter say https://t.co/QQRTY6xM6N via @bpolitics

— Kevin Whitelaw (@KevinWhitelaw1) February 10, 2020

The drugs Trump can affect by executive order are drugs covered under Medicare Part B.

Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) covers a limited number of outpatient prescription drugs under limited conditions.

Usually, drugs covered under Part B are drugs you wouldn't usually give to yourself, like those you get at a doctor's office or hospital outpatient setting.

Here are some examples of drugs covered by Part B:

Drugs used with an item of durable medical equipment (DME): Medicare covers drugs infused through DME, like an infusion pump or a nebulizer.

Some antigens: Medicare helps pay for antigens if they’re prepared by a doctor and are given by a properly instructed person (who could be you, the patient) under appropriate supervision.

Injectable osteoporosis drugs: Medicare helps pay for an injectable drug if you’re a woman with osteoporosis who meets the criteria for the Medicare home health benefit and has a bone fracture that a doctor certifies was related to post-menopausal osteoporosis. A doctor must certify that you can’t give yourself the injection or learn how to give yourself the drug by injection. The home health nurse or aide won’t be covered to provide the injection unless family and/or caregivers are unable or unwilling to give you the drug by injection.

Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents: Medicare helps pay for erythropoietin by injection if you have  End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD)  or you need this drug to treat anemia related to certain other conditions.

Blood clotting factors: Medicare helps pay for clotting factors you give yourself by injection, if you have hemophilia.

Injectable and infused drugs: Medicare covers most of these when given by a licensed medical provider.

Oral End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) drugs: Medicare helps pay for some oral ESRD drugs if the same drug is available in injectable form and the drug is covered under the Part B ESRD benefit.

My mother took a small pharmacy's worth of drugs every day, by the end.  She had to inject insulin four times a day, as well.  All of her drugs were covered by Part D, and only got covered by Part B when she was in a hospital.  Her insulin costs jumped up so high at one point the Part D insurer wouldn't cover it (Part D insurance is purchased separately from Medicare A and B, if you didn't know).  In short, what Trump can do will affect people suffering from cancer or ESRD, basically.  And virtually no-one else.  Since those drugs are covered by Part B anyway (I never saw a hospital bill for my mother, including any charges for drugs while in a hospital.  I handled all her finances for the last 3 years of her life.), nobody is going to notice any difference in what they pay for drugs.

Another Trump squib, in other words.  He can't get Congress to do anything about it.  He can't do anything about it.  He's useless as tits on a boar hog, and about as destructive as a wild hog, too.