NHC Statement on Patients as Partners in Drug Pricing and Health System Reforms

August 19, 2025

Patients as Partners in Drug Pricing and Health System Reforms

As the voice for nearly 200 patient and health organizations representing more than 200 million Americans with chronic conditions and disabilities, the National Health Council (NHC) shares policymakers' goal of lowering health care costs and ensuring that reforms deliver better health outcomes and a more sustainable health care infrastructure. American families and the system are overly burdened with excessive costs and unnecessary fragmentation and complexity.

The NHC supports efforts to lower out-of-pocket costs and make medicines more affordable for Americans. These challenges are best addressed by leveraging homegrown strategies that reflect the values and priorities of everyday Americans. We suggest that the administration, which has pushed for greater transparency, reduced bureaucracy, and the elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse in our nation's health care system, can best advance reforms by working within the framework of our domestic system rather than importing models from foreign countries.

One option under consideration, the Most Favored Nation (MFN) pricing model, seeks to lower costs by tying U.S. prices to those in other countries. Foreign prices, however, reflect the unique health priorities and financing structures in those countries, often quite different from the U.S., driven more by government agencies than by patient-physician decision-making. And for patients, applying foreign-based pricing models risks undermining a proven and impressive ecosystem delivering critical innovation and investment in ever more effective and emerging therapies.

Importantly, tying U.S. drug prices to those set in foreign countries would import cost-effectiveness formulas that devalue individual lives and have been rejected by U.S. patients and policymakers. Pricing models in other countries often overlook patients' perspective and fail to reflect their needs and values. Policymakers must act to ensure that any cost-saving approach protects timely access and sustain America's leadership in global medical advancement.

Americans seek health system reforms that are guided by and deliver what matters most to patients: timely access to affordable care, support in managing chronic conditions, access to new treatments, and the ability to make informed choices. Much can be accomplished through the elimination of needless complexity and competing incentives in U.S. health system. The NHC looks forward to continued collaboration with the Administration and Congress to ensure that reforms are meaningful, sustainable, and centered on the needs of people with chronic diseases and disabilities. That our best strategies can be found here in America.