When President Donald Trump announced “TrumpRx” in early February, a weight that I have carried my entire adult life was suddenly lifted from my shoulders. The website offers life-saving medications at much lower prices than normal, based on the president’s promise to give Americans the same prescription drug costs as patients in other developed countries. I can personally attest that such equal treatment – a policy known as most-favoured-nation pricing – is urgently needed for people struggling with chronic diseases.
I have suffered from asthma since childhood. I’ve been able to keep it under control thanks to a prescription medication that blocks pneumonia and keeps my airways open. The few times I stopped taking the medication, I ended up in the emergency room, unable to breathe. That happened almost four years ago in what I thought was the worst possible place: on the other side of the world, unable to contact my doctors or go to my pharmacy.
My family and I were in Italy, traveling to honor my mother. She had recently been diagnosed with cancer and my brother and I planned the trip in between her chemo treatments, when she would be healthy enough to travel. She always wanted to go there with us. But in our haste to pack two families and three small children, I accidentally grabbed a nearly empty inhaler.
I realized my mistake a few days into the trip, when I looked at the inhaler and saw that I only had two doses left. Not only was I worried about my health, but that was of course of utmost importance. I worried how I would be able to afford the medicine if I even found it in Italy.
VANCE SAYS TRUMP ADMIN IS COMING UP WITH A ‘GREAT’ HEALTH PLAN, WANTS TO WORK WITH DEMS: ‘POLITICS GET DAMNED’
President Donald Trump speaks about TrumpRx at the South Court Auditorium in the Old Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington, DC, as Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz listens. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
I have organized my professional life around access to insurance that will cover my medications, given the longstanding retail price of $600 for a month’s supply. For 25 years, I have struggled with denied coverage letters, premium prescription plans, and the constant worry that we would have to cut back on the necessities to get my medications. At the time, I was already paying a few hundred dollars a month for the drug in Italy – a lot, but a bargain compared to the normal price.
But I had no choice. I had to get my meds. After a few minutes of searching I found an Italian pharmacy across town. I immediately walked over and tried to control my racing thoughts about what might happen. I knew that if I couldn’t get the medicine, I couldn’t return to the US safely
Fifteen minutes later I walked out in tears, drug in hand. It only cost me 30 euros or about $35.
PENCE GROUP DECLARES TRUMP’S DRUG PLAN AS ‘SOCIALIST’ IN NEW AD CAMPAIGN
At first I was both relieved and grateful. But at the end of the day I was scratching my head. Why did it cost $600 in the US while Italians could get it for next to nothing? In the days that followed, I discovered that the answer is extremely complicated.
It is affected by everything from a lack of price transparency to the interference of middlemen who drive up costs. It’s also true that foreign countries have been negotiating prescription drug prices for decades, forcing Americans to cover the enormous costs of pharmaceutical development while paying well below market prices.
Whatever the reason, the system doesn’t work for Americans. Prices for brand-name prescription drugs in the U.S. are more than four times higher than prices in other wealthy countries. As many as 18 million Americans have struggled to buy the medications they need in recent years.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS ADVICE
I now use a generic version of the drug that costs significantly less. But that doesn’t change the fact that I, like many other Americans with chronic illness, had to pay through the nose for decades, only to find the medicine I needed in Italy for what seemed like pennies.
Not only was I worried about my health, but that was of course of utmost importance. I worried how I would be able to afford the medicine if I even found it in Italy.
Trump is fighting to fix this broken system. Before launching TrumpRx, he made 16 deals with drug companies to charge MFN prices. As a lifelong conservative, I am generally uncomfortable with this type of government intervention in the market. But other countries have already intervened and people like me have paid the price.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
If pharmaceutical companies need the extra money, they should first discuss it with other countries that have negotiated it. Then they could recoup their costs on the backs of others, not simply by charging more in the US. In short, there is no good reason why 340 million Americans should pay so much more than hundreds of millions of people living in Europe and Asia.
I will always be grateful that my medications were so affordable in Italy in 2022. It very well might have saved my life. But I’m even more grateful that President Trump is finally lowering prices for every American here at home.
