Tag: Price

U.S. factories that move jobs south of the border. Yet the pact would also give pharmaceutical companies 10 years' protection from cheaper competition in a category of ultra-expensive drugs called biologics, which are made from living cells. The objections of DeLauro and other Democrats suddenly carry greater potency. The need to curb high drug prices has become a rallying cry for voters of all political stripes. Like Trump, many Democrats blamed NAFTA for encouraging U.S. factories to capitalize on lower-wage Mexican labor and then to ship goods back into the U.S., duty-free. North American free trade deal. So the new pact wouldn't change the status quo in the United States, though it would force Mexico to expand biologics' monopoly from five years and Canada from eight years. In fact, supporters of the biologics monopoly argue that the pact might cut prices in the United States because drug companies would no longer face pressure to charge Americans more to compensate for lower prices in Canada and Mexico. For Democrats, higher drug prices are shaping up as a powerful political argument against approving the president's new North American trade deal. They're the kinds of voters Democrats hope to attract in 2020.

On Jan. 1, hospitals began complying with a Trump administration order to post list prices for all their services, theoretically offering consumers transparency and choice and forcing health care providers into price competition. It is nearly impossible for consumers to compare prices for the same service at different hospitals because no two hospitals seem to describe services in the same way. “We’ve updated our guidelines to specifically require hospitals to post price information on the internet in a machine-readable format,” Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said last week. The Trump administration adopted the new requirement as part of its agenda to promote “transparency” in health care, in the belief that health markets would work better if consumers had more information. In another example, federal officials want to require pharmaceutical companies to disclose the list price of prescription drugs in television advertisements. “There is no more powerful force than an informed consumer.” The Trump administration told hospitals that they had to post their standard charges for all services and items, including drugs, by Jan. 1, but did not define “standard charges.” In later guidance, it said the format was “the hospital’s choice.” “Without a standard definition, patients cannot make accurate comparisons between hospitals,” said Herb B. Kuhn, the president of the Missouri Hospital Association. Federal officials have asked the public to suggest “enforcement mechanisms.” Each hospital has a list — known as a “chargemaster” — of prices for thousands of goods and services, including medical procedures, laboratory tests, supplies and medications. But the price information is often difficult and sometimes impossible to find on hospital websites. People with high-deductible plans may have to pay some or all of the list price until they meet the deductible, and people with insurance who go outside their health plan’s network may also have to pay a substantial share of the list price. “Having a high list price means they have more leverage in negotiating prices for people covered by private insurance.” Even while complying with the new requirement, many hospitals have posted disclaimers warning consumers not to rely on the data.

After a deep plunge late last week, the Turkish lira had fallen nearly 30% against the dollar since June 24, when President Recep Erdogan won an election cementing all but absolute power. Inflation is running at a 16% annual rate. The iShares MSCI Turkey exchange-traded fund (ticker: TUR) is off more than 40% year-to-date, and by Friday was dragging down other emerging markets and shares of European banks with exposure. Erdogan appointed his son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, as finance minister, replacing respected veteran Mehmet Simsek. Central bank governor Murat Cetinkaya whiffed on an expected rate increase, then disappeared from view. Erdogan himself took a mystical approach as the currency melted down. “If they have their dollars, we have our people, our god,” he told the nation Aug. 9, urging citizens to save the lira with their mattress greenbacks. State-dominated media poured on hype about a Washington-led currency plot aimed at undermining Turkey’s resurgence to lost Ottoman glory. But with a low sovereign debt around 30% of GDP, Ankara can afford it. The vital virtual export of tourism already looks to be up 30% this year, Ash says.

A jump in crude oil prices leads this week's edition of Futures File, our weekly commodities wrap-up. Oil market on fire Petroleum prices exploded to a three-year high over $74 per barrel on Friday morning on supply fears spanning the globe. Political unrest in Libya and Venezuela are restricting exports from those nations, while a major Canadian production facility is offline as well. More dramatically, the Trump administration announced that it wants to stop U.S. trading partners from buying Iranian crude oil by November as part of the reimposed sanctions against Iran. The Middle Eastern nation is the world's fifth-largest producer of oil, and cutting off the flow of its petroleum to Europe, Japan, South Korea and India will force officials there to find new sources, further boosting prices. Many had been hoping that global demand could be met by a jump in production from Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). However, the cartel announced last week that it was only increasing production by about 600,000 barrels per day, an increase that will likely leave the world hungering for more. This was likely OPEC's desire, as they historically restrict supply to benefit from more profitable prices. These sharply higher oil prices will translate into higher prices for gasoline, diesel fuel, propane and jet fuel, ultimately hitting consumers on numerous fronts. Grain prices rally On Friday morning, the U.S. Department of Agriculture updated its estimates of this year's planted acreage for corn, wheat and soybeans.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s long-promised plan to bring down drug prices would mostly spare the pharmaceutical industry he previously accused of “getting away with murder.” Instead he focuses on private competition and more openness to reduce America’s prescription pain. In Rose Garden remarks at the White House Friday, Trump called his plan the “most sweeping action in history to lower the price of prescription drugs for the American people.” But it does not include his campaign pledge to use the massive buying power of the government’s Medicare program to directly negotiate lower prices for seniors. “There are some things in this set of proposals that can move us in the direction of lower prices for some people,” said David Mitchell, founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs. Democrats pounced on Trump for not pursuing direct Medicare negotiations, an idea he championed before reaching the White House. “Trump chose the incremental over the disruptive.” Some parts of the plan were previously proposed in the president’s budget proposal sent to Congress, including providing free generic drugs to low-income seniors and sharing rebates from drugmakers with Medicare patients. Azar later told reporters that the administration would “seek input” on doing away with drug rebates in the Medicare system to encourage more direct discounts. Meanwhile Americans are paying more at the pharmacy counter due to health insurance plans that require them to shoulder more of their prescription costs. America has the highest drug prices in the world. But experts are skeptical the U.S. can pressure foreign governments to pay more for drugs. In the U.S., Medicare is the largest purchaser of prescription drugs, covering 60 million seniors and Americans with disabilities, but it is barred by law from directly negotiating lower prices with drugmakers.

Farmgate price seen stable at around 700 francs a kilogram Output for the season’s smaller crop could reach 500,000 tons Cocoa prices have surged by a third this year, but that’s still unlikely to translate into big gains for farmers in top producer Ivory Coast. The West African nation uses forward sales to determine the minimum farmer price, so recent gains may have come too late for the smaller of two annual harvests that starts next week. That will limit President Alassane Ouattara’s ability to boost farmer rates. Read a Quicktake about Ivory Coast’s cocoa sector and last year’s crisis Ivory Coast will probably announce the minimum farmer price for the mid-crop, which runs from April through September, on Thursday. The regulator is auctioning a further 150,000 metric tons of mid-crop beans after previous sales for 300,000 tons, according to people familiar with the matter. The cocoa regulator and budget ministry forecast production of 450,000 to 500,000 tons, people familiar said last week. Any price cut would put Ouattara’s popularity at risk at the time when divisions are rising within the ruling coalition, said Adeline Van Houtte, research analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit. It kept the price steady in October for the main crop harvest that will end this month. “He needs to keep this image especially ahead of the elections and as he is preparing his succession." How’s the crop looking?

"The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed," said that Reagan platform. Every Republican platform since 1984 has included essentially these same words -- and, in 2016, the platform went so far as to name one specific pro-abortion rights organization Republicans would not fund. Running on this platform, Republicans won the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Yet, the federal government is still funding Planned Parenthood. And it is safe bet that as of Friday -- when the Republican-controlled Congress needs to pass a new federal funding bill because the current one is expiring -- House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will pass a bill that permits continued funding of Planned Parenthood. On Feb. 17, 2011, as the House was debating the first spending bill the new Republican majority needed to pass, then-Rep. Mike Pence rose to defend an amendment he had offered. "I believe that ending an innocent human life is morally wrong," Pence said. "But I rise tonight because I also believe it's morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use it to fund organizations that provide and promote abortion -- like Planned Parenthood of America." It is "morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans" to fund Planned Parenthood. But that does not mean the Republicans will do what is right.