LOWERING PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to expand on the historic efforts of his first term to lower prescription drug prices.
- The Order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to take steps to significantly reduce drug prices for American patients.
- It delivers lower drug prices for Medicare and the seniors who rely on it by:
- Improving the Medicare Drug Pricing Negotiation Program in order to eclipse the 22% in savings achieved in the program’s first year.
- Aligning Medicare payment for certain prescription drugs with the cost by which hospitals actually acquire them, which can be 35% lower than what the government currently pays.
- Standardizing Medicare payments for prescription drugs, such as cancer treatments, regardless of where the patient receives care, which can lower prices by as much as 60%.
- It provides massive discounts to low-income patients for life-saving medications.
- Insulin prices for low-income patients and the uninsured will be lowered to as low as $0.03, plus a small administrative fee.
- Injectable epinephrine for low-income patients and the uninsured will be as low as $15, plus a small administrative fee.
- The Order helps states reduce drug prices by:
- Facilitating importation programs that could save states millions in prescription drug costs.
- Building off programs to help states get much better deals on expensive sickle-cell medications in Medicaid than the statutorily required 23.1% discount.
BRINGING RADICAL TRANSPARENCY AND COMPETITION TO PRESCRIPTION DRUG MARKETS: President Trump is dedicated to creating a transparent, competitive, and fair prescription drug market for American consumers.
- President Trump has already taken numerous actions to end the practice of large corporations profiting by keeping health care prices and business practices hidden from Americans.
- The Order increases the availability of generics and biosimilars, which can be as much as 80% cheaper than brand alternatives.
- The Order builds off that critical work and reevaluates the role of middlemen by:
- Improving disclosure of fees that pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs) pay to brokers for steering employers to utilize their services.
- Directing the administration to develop reforms to promote a more competitive, transparent, efficient, and resilient prescription drug value chain.
- By addressing the influence of middlemen and promoting open competition, President Trump’s actions aim to create a fairer prescription drug market that lowers costs and ensures accountability across the health care system.
PUTTING AMERICAN PATIENTS FIRST ONCE AGAIN: President Trump is delivering on his promise to once again put American patients first by building off of the historic efforts of his first term to lower prescription drug prices.
- In his first term, President Trump took numerous actions that delivered real results for patients:
- The Food and Drug Administration sped up development of lower-cost generic medicines and biosimilars as well as created a pathway for states to import lower cost drugs from Canada.
- Government-mandated discounts were passed through to patients instead of being retained by middlemen.
- Price transparency rules were developed to allow patients, doctors, and employers to see the actual cost of prescription drugs.
- Insulin copays were capped for Medicare beneficiaries.
- Unsurprisingly, the Biden-Harris Administration let many of these priorities languish while failing to even achieve the savings projected from the new Medicare Prescription Drug Negotiation Program.
- President Trump will not stand for inaction, and his Administration is working rapidly to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Americans.