Letters: Trump plan on drug costs isn’t promising

No one should be surprised at the reaction in the financial community to President Donald Trump’ s hollow initiative to reform the ever escalating cost of prescription drugs [“Trump lays out plan for reducing drug prices,” News, May 12]. Stocks of related companies actually rose! Trump told wealthy donors he was going to make them rich, and he is keeping that promise!

The much heralded tax cuts that give billions to our largest corporations will produce crumbs for the middle class. The cuts are sure to create crippling deficits. In the near future, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that national debt will exceed the gross domestic product, which is mind boggling. So much for fiscal conservatives.

Robert Gobright,

Sag Harbor

I am glad to Washington is looking for ways to reduce prescription drug prices, and I would like to offer this really creative free market solution: Let Medicare, Medicaid and the Department of Veterans Affairs combine their buying power to negotiate drug purchases, just as any major company would do.

But I guess I know why that will never happen: Lawmakers would lose all the money they get for their campaigns!

Ed Patterson,Holbrook

It’s plain that Big Pharma and its legions of lobbyists are in control, and there is little hope to rein in ridiculously high drug prices. I guess politicians who are used to bellying up to the pharmaceutical trough would have it no other way and leaned on President Donald Trump not to push to give Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices in spite of his promises to do so. Trump’s plan to reduce drug costs seems more of a smoke-and-mirrors approach probably dictated by the industry.

I am getting cataract surgery. My insurance company’s “preferred” pharmacy called and said my three required eye-drop prescriptions are ready for pick-up. My cost after insurance: $445.86.

A very wise man once told me how to beat this rotten system: Stay young and healthy.

Gerald N. King,Deer Park