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# Azar: I Have a Shocking Amount of Power, Intend to Use It
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/azar-i-have-a-shocking-amount-of-power-intend-to-use-it/
- Published: 2018-05-14T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T00:04:52.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5141433

“The secretary of HHS has a shocking amount of power by the stroke of a pen, and we intend to exercise it,” HHS secretary **Alex Azar** told [PBS News Hour 5/14](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/hhs-secretary-azar-trumps-drug-prices-proposal-is-better-than-campaign-pledge?ref=fdaweb.com)**,** addressing the cost of prescription drugs paid by Medicare for senior citizens − an issue FDA commissioner **Scott Gottlieb** has committed the agency to address through its drug approval policies and authorities. A former Eli Lilly president, Azar was being questioned by PBS News Hour anchor **Judy Woodruff** about reports that the Trump Administration intends to press industry to post prices in its direct-to-consumer advertisements.  

“Well,” responded Azar, “we fundamentally believe that, as a citizen, when you're watching a TV ad that is trying to entice you to go to your doctor's office and ask that doctor for a drug, that you are owed as part of a fair balance information, to know how much the drug costs. What are they trying to get for that drug? I think it's material to know if the drug that you're being pitched is a $100 drug or a $50,000 drug. God help you if a senior citizen watches an ad and pays for a doctor's appointment to find out that it's a $50,000, unaffordable drug that he or she couldn't get. I just think that's fair information they ought to have.”  

A skeptical Woodruff wondered how many companies would do this voluntarily. Azar responded: “Well, we're going to get there one way or the other, so I hope they will get there now.”  

Woodruff then turned to lowering out-of-pocket drug expenses, another promise of the Trump plan. “So many people pay so much out of pocket for their medicines,” Azar said, “especially as we now have these higher-deductible health care plans and as insurance companies have pushed more of the cost burden on to us. … We have actually asked for Congress to put a cap on the amount of out of pocket a senior would ever have to pay during a year. … We have asked for low-income senior citizens to pay nothing for generic drugs out of pocket. And we have already changed how we reimburse our drugs for those physician-administered infusion drugs. We have changed the reimbursement that pulls down the out-of-pocket for seniors by $320 million a year already.”  

When Woodruff asked if all this required congressional approval, Azar responded: “Very little of it does. Some of those changes to benefit design it just mentioned would require congressional approval. But the vast, vast majority of what we're doing, I have the power to implement. The secretary of HHS has a shocking amount of power by the stroke of a pen. And we intend to exercise it.”