As a 44-year-old member of Generation X, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida might be an unlikely candidate to wrest his party’s older voters away from former President Donald Trump, a 76-year-old baby boomer.
But he is trying anyway.
As DeSantis closes in on the official rollout of a 2024 campaign for president, he is seeking to make early inroads with this large, politically influential group of voters, and doing so by appealing to their pocketbook concerns.
He has focused especially on his efforts to lower prescription drug costs in Florida, including pushing the federal government for permission to import cheaper drugs from Canada. This month, he signed a bill that he says will bring down costs by regulating drug industry middlemen.
The attempts to highlight drug costs come as Trump, who would be DeSantis’ main Republican rival, has attacked him for having supported plans to restructure Social Security and Medicare.
More than 60% of Republican and Republican-leaning voters are over 50 years old, according to the Pew Research Center.
The issue of prescription drugs, the prices of which have surged in recent years, reflects one of DeSantis’ advantages in a primary: the ability to promote a lengthy list of laws he has signed this year.
But talking about drug costs also illustrates the potential messaging challenges that DeSantis could face as a candidate. The governor, who considers himself a policy expert, has sometimes struggled when trying to make the topic tangible for voters. Drug costs are far drier and more complicated than the red meat he has fed to his base on conservative causes like defunding diversity programs at state schools, banning gender-transition care for minors and restricting the ability of immigrants living in the country illegally to find work and gain access to social services..
Pharmacy benefit managers work with drug manufacturers, insurance plans and pharmacies to provide drugs to patients at a discount. But patient advocates question whether benefit managers pass enough savings onto consumers. All 50 states have sought greater oversight of them, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy.
Those who study the issue say they believe DeSantis’ plan could have a real impact on drug prices and transparency, particularly in comparison with Trump’s efforts. When Trump was in the White House, he tried to end rebates for pharmacy benefit managers, arguing that they were driving up the prices of medicines. But he ultimately dropped the issue for most of his term.
Under Florida’s new law, a state advocate will field consumer and pharmacy complaints against the drug middlemen. And state regulators will have broad enforcement authority, including the ability to dole out hefty fines and even revoke a pharmacy benefit manager’s right to operate in Florida.
For now, DeSantis still appears to be workshopping his messaging on prescription drugs.
At a stop in rural Wisconsin, he briefly mentioned the law on pharmacy benefit managers.
“We’ve moved to hold Big Pharma accountable by shining a light and reining in things like pharmacy benefit managers that cause you to pay more for expensive medication,” he said.
The crowd reacted with mild applause, having burst into cheers moments earlier when DeSantis described a bill he signed allowing the death penalty for sexual battery against children.
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