Ross: How to make drugs affordable (get on TV)

There are so many new miracle drugs now, they have to be named with leftover Scrabble letters. But while drug companies want you to remember those names, they don’t want you to know how much they cost.

Because, as one drug lobbyist told CBS News: “We’re concerned that if you just have the list price in isolation in the ad, it may deter patients from seeking needed care.”

So instead, the idea is to get your hopes up and then tell you the pills cost $300,000 a year.

But President Trump has promised “to reduce the price of prescription drugs.” And he wants to do that by using free market competition. Which means customers have to know the price up front.

As CBS’ Chip Reid reports, “the Trump administration is taking a bold move. They want to require drug companies to put the prices of their drugs right on the TV screen.”

Which will be like seeing the number of calories for your Mud Fudge Macademia Frappucino before you buy it.

But will it work?

Chip talked to a mom facing a huge drug bill for her son Elijah.

“Listing the drug price in direct-to-consumer advertising is not going to lower drug prices,” mother Juliana Keeping said.

But then, as Chip was putting his story together, she got some good news. Her insurance company is going to pick up the cost for her son’s drugs. They would have cost her a quarter million dollars — each year — out of pocket.

The new policy is already working! As long as you get your story on TV.

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