Marylanders could see increased insurance premiums, drug prices or problems getting generic drugs if the Trump administration moves forward with planned tariffs, according to experts from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

So far, the drug market has been largely unaffected by the patchwork of moving tariffs the White House imposed or says it will impose.

Mariana Socal, an associate professor at JHU, says if the administration does go forward with planned tariffs against countries in Europe and Asia then it could impact prices.

“Over the past 20 years, much of the manufacturing has shifted overseas to very high-income countries,” said Jeromie Ballreich, associate research professor at JHU. “Currently, the three biggest countries for import of branded pharmaceuticals are Switzerland, Ireland and Germany, these are very high-income countries with high labor costs.”

Those countries have given drug companies tax breaks to attract them.

However, Ballreich and Socal said tariffs will increase the price of the drugs causing insurance carriers to pay more. That will translate to higher premiums or higher out-of-pocket costs they said.

“The United States pays on average, three to four times higher prices than other developed countries around the world for the same branded drugs,” Socal said. “Unfortunately, that results in year after year after year, about one in four Americans reporting not having been able to afford the drug that they needed due to cost.”

Some distribution companies in the U.S. are trying to hedge against tariffs by stockpiling now.

Ireland, the country with the largest number of drug companies, has seen a five-fold increase in exports since the Trump Administration proposed tariffs in March, Ballreich said.

Supply chains could get jammed up as well.

“One of the problems of tariffs on generic products is not necessarily high prices, which could also happen, but also manufacturing quality problems, from the possibility that manufacturers may want to cut corners,” Socal said.

Socal says companies may cut those corners to keep up profit margins, but could cause factories to close because of poor quality.

On Wednesday, the White House announced it will keep 55% tariffs on China.

Most countries have a 10% tariff, however the administration stated that it may place an extra 20% on countries in the European Union.

The Consumer Price Index showed a 2.4% increase in prices in May compared to a year ago.