Republicans Want You to Pay More at the Pharmacy — Or Die
President Donald Trump has promised to impose more tariffs, this time on the pills, injections, and treatments keeping millions of Americans alive and healthy. Sixty-six percent of adults in the United States take prescription drugs. I'm one of them.
If and when these tariffs go into effect, the already criminal cost of my psoriatic arthritis medication — and everyone else's medication — will go through the roof.
Without health insurance, a monthly supply of Cosentyx costs around $8,000. Trump has indicated that his pharmaceutical tariffs will range from 50 to 200 percent. The meds that make it possible for me, and tens of thousands of Americans, to live a normal life without chronic pain could cost anywhere from $12,000 to $24,000 per month in the very near future.
It's not just biologics — the cost of antibiotics, acne treatments, weight loss drugs like Ozempic, inhalers, birth control, blood pressure pills, and more will skyrocket. Keep in mind: Americans already pay far higher prices for drugs than people in other countries.
Even if you are one of the rare Americans who can afford even higher costs, your prescription might disappear from the shelves. Right now, there are 270 active drug shortages in the U.S. Shortages of antibiotics are particularly dire, with most being made abroad. These tariffs will slow production and even shutter smaller facilities.
You might be thinking, I'd like more of my drugs to be produced in the United States. That's perfectly reasonable, but Trump's tariffs will have the opposite effect. In fact, companies like Eli Lilly that are building factories stateside are now seeing construction costs balloon, thanks to Trump's construction tariffs. That's a cost many businesses can't and won't begin to afford.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved over 23,000 individual medications. It is unrealistic, if not impossible, to move all production to the United States, especially in time to beat these tariffs. Our entire economy and education systems would have to change. We wouldn't build cars or invent new technologies — we'd compound topical creams.
Right now, America dominates the most essential part of pharmaceutical production — research and trials. We created the polio vaccine, performed the first successful kidney transplant, and led the project to map the human genome.
And yet, the very thing our nation excels at, Republicans are destroying. Trump and the GOP are shutting down university labs conducting drug research. They are canceling cancer clinical trials. They are defunding the National Institutes of Health, which leads the world's health research. In fact, the NIH helps fund research and development on virtually every drug that's approved for sale. Instead of focusing on the science, Trump's administration is busy drumming up conspiracy theories about vaccines and Wi-Fi making us sick.
In the short term, we'll pay more at the pharmacy. We'll get sicker. I won't be able to use my right hand, your parents' blood pressure will rise, and your kid's blood sugar will be unstable. Billionaire Mark Cuban, who runs an online pharmacy dedicated to selling medications at a lower price, said of Trump's planned tariffs, 'It will get ugly. … people could die.'
The truly horrific costs of Trump's war on health care will arrive in a few years. Without American-led research, the search for cancer, ALS, diabetes, and Alzheimer's cures will slow. When new ailments and illnesses arrive, scientific breakthroughs will take longer.
We will be set back decades — all because Trump lost his mind and Republicans followed his lead.
Liz Charboneau is the Vice President of Research at American Bridge 21st Century PAC.
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