America Last? How Foreign Price Controls Threaten U.S. Patients
By John “CZ” Czwartacki, Founder & Chairman
Among the most dangerous policy proposals for American patients is the idea that the government should dictate the prices of life-saving medications. We’ve seen it with the Inflation Reduction Act Drug Price “Negotiation” Program, which has already led to a sharp reduction in the development of breakthrough treatments and cures. Now, a new threat looms: the Most Favored Nation (MFN) policy, which would hand foreign governments the power to fix U.S. drug prices. If implemented, MFN will crush American medical innovation, drive away investment, and leave countless patients without access to the cutting-edge treatments they desperately need.
Surrendering America’s healthcare policy to foreign bureaucrats is the opposite of President Trump’s “America First” agenda. It puts Americans last, forcing our sickest patients to pay the price for foreign freeloading. As someone who worked in the first Trump Administration, I feel strongly that this does not align with conservative values of free enterprise, national sovereignty, and American strength. MFN would give other countries power over U.S. prices and access, which are and should remain to be determined by the free market. These other countries’ prices are often determined by single-payer or socialist medical systems, which have turned away innovation investments so much so that companies largely flock to the U.S. to exist in a more innovation-appreciative environment.
Moreover, many of these European countries use discriminatory valuation systems that devalue and deprioritize care for the sickest and most vulnerable patients, particularly those with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Their cost-cutting models prioritize government budgets over human lives, limiting access to life-extending therapies. As an over 30-year multiple sclerosis survivor who has relied upon multiple breakthrough treatments throughout the time I’ve been living with my disease, any suggestion that we implement or mimic these systems isn’t just mind-boggling—it’s offensive.
The numbers tell a stark story: in the countries MFN proposes we mimic, only 29% of new medicines are available on average, whereas 85% are currently available in the US. If the United States adopts these countries' price controls, we will see the same outcomes and innovation will plummet. This means breakthrough treatments or potential cures for chronic, rare, or life-threatening illnesses will never reach those patients’ hands.
It is true that other countries reap the rewards of American innovation. European countries benefit in innumerable ways from America’s power paid for by taxpayers, ingenuity, and risk-taking. Europe once led the world, and America’s economy surpassed theirs not because we mimicked them, but because we discovered new roads to prosperity. That being said, we need to address the central problem: how do we ensure continued American innovation while promoting fair and affordable access to these treatments? Instead of importing the world’s worst ideas, America should do what America does best: try something new.
There are a few main ways we can do this. First, American lawmakers must prioritize transparency in drug pricing. This will expose the hidden subsidies of the rest of the world and give American payers clear data, free of middlemen and third parties, to operate on. Moreover, our policymakers can utilize trade tools and tariffs to adequately incentivize foreign countries to stop exploiting the American drug market. Lastly, and most importantly, we must return to what made the United States the undisputed leader in medicine. Intellectual property rights— protected and codified through legislation like the Hatch-Waxman and Bayh-Dole Acts, protect American innovators and incentivize them to safely invest their time and money into developing a potentially lifesaving medicine. We must return to these IP-focused, free-market values that fostered an environment that allowed for critical medication development.
America’s patients, particularly those suffering from chronic, rare, and life-threatening illnesses, are counting on President Trump to reject foreign price-fixing policies. If we want to make America’s healthcare system great again, we must return to the principles that made us a beacon of medical innovation in the first place. Implementing the worst drug pricing policies in the world is not the answer—unleashing American ingenuity is.