President Donald Trump says he will sign an executive order on Monday that could lower the prices of certain medications, bringing back an idea he pushed during his first term, one he has been speaking about since before becoming president.
The order Trump plans to sign will tell the Department of Health and Human Services to base what Medicare pays for drugs given in a doctor’s office on the lowest price paid in other countries.
“I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World,” the president posted Sunday on his social media site, saying he would sign the order Monday morning at the White House.
“Our Country will finally be treated fairly, and our citizens Healthcare Costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before,” Trump added.
This plan would mostly affect specific drugs that Medicare covers and are given during office visits — such as cancer treatments and other injectable medicines. It could help save the government a lot of money, though the “TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS” Trump mentioned may be more than what is likely.
Medicare provides health insurance for around 70 million older Americans. People from both political parties have long criticized how expensive drugs are in the U.S. compared to other wealthy countries, but no lasting solution has passed through Congress.
Under the order, the government would base the amount it pays drug companies on what a group of other advanced countries pay — a “most favored nation” method.
The drug industry is expected to strongly push back against this plan.
Trump tried to introduce a similar rule in his first term, but it didn’t move forward. He signed a related order near the end of his presidency, but it was later stopped by a court during the Biden administration.
Drug companies argued that Trump’s 2020 plan would let foreign governments decide the value of medications in the U.S. They say lower prices will reduce profits and harm their ability to develop new drugs.
President Donald Trump speaks with the reportersOnly drugs under Medicare Part B — which covers office visits — are expected to be part of the plan. Medicare patients often pay part of the cost for these medications, and traditional Medicare does not limit how much they might pay each year.
A report from Trump’s administration in his first term showed that the U.S. paid twice as much as some other countries for those medications. In 2021, Medicare Part B spending on those drugs went over $33 billion.
Drugs filled at pharmacies, which are more common, would likely not be affected by this new order.
Trump shared the full details of this plan after hinting last week that he had a “very big announcement” to make. He gave no hints at the time, only saying it wasn’t about trade or the tariffs he had set on other countries.
“We’re going to have a very, very big announcement to make — like as big as it gets,” Trump said last week.
During his first term, Trump accused drug companies of “getting away with murder” and said that other countries with price controls were taking advantage of Americans.
On Sunday, he criticized the industry again, saying the “Pharmaceutical/Drug Companies would say, for years, that it was Research and Development Costs, and that all of these costs were, and would be, for no reason whatsoever, borne by the ‘suckers’ of America, ALONE.”
He mentioned how powerful the industry’s lobbying is and said campaign money “can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party.”
“We are going to do the right thing,” he wrote.
