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President Trump’s recent executive order on drug prices gets almost everything right — except the solution. It’s true, as the order says, that “Americans pay more per capita for prescription drugs than residents of any other developed country.” And it’s unjust that Americans disproportionately “finance much of the biopharmaceutical innovation that the world depends on.” (Merrill Matthews, 12/4)

The number of lives lost in recent years to overdoses involving prescription opioids averages nearly 15,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Conversely, people might be shocked to learn, close to 128,000 Americans die annually as a result of taking medications as they were prescribed. (Brad Bostic, 12/3)

According to a November 2019 Gallup poll, approximately 58 million Americans were unable to pay for prescribed medicine in the last 12 months. And, at least 34 million people know of at least one friend or family member in the last five years who died after not receiving medical treatment, due to their inability to pay for it. Thousands of seniors die each year prematurely because they cannot afford their medications, with that number projected to hit 112,000 by 2030. Prescription drug prices are literally killing Americans. (Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., 12/2)