U.S. President Donald Trump says he’ll signal an govt order on Monday that, if carried out, may convey down the prices of some drugs — reviving a failed effort from his first time period on a problem he’s talked up since even earlier than changing into president.
The order Trump is promising will direct the Division of Well being and Human Providers to tie what Medicare pays for drugs administered in a physician’s workplace to the bottom value paid by different international locations.
“I can be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the USA can pay the identical value because the Nation that pays the bottom value wherever within the World,” the president posted Sunday on his social media web site, pledging to signal the order on Monday morning on the White Home.
“Our Nation will lastly be handled pretty, and our residents Healthcare Prices can be lowered by numbers by no means even considered earlier than,” Trump added.
His proposal would possible solely affect sure medication coated by Medicare and given in an workplace — suppose infusions that deal with most cancers, and different injectables. Nevertheless it may doubtlessly convey important financial savings to the federal government, though the “TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS” Trump boasted about in his submit could also be an exaggeration.
Medicare gives medical insurance for roughly 70 million older People. Complaints about U.S. drug costs being notoriously excessive, even compared with different giant and rich international locations, have lengthy drawn the ire of each events, however an enduring repair has by no means cleared Congress.

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Beneath the deliberate order, the federal authorities would tie what it pays pharmaceutical firms for these medication to the worth paid by a gaggle of different, economically superior international locations — the so-called “most favored nation” strategy.
The proposal will face fierce opposition from the pharmaceutical trade.

It was a rule that Trump tried to undertake throughout his first time period, however may by no means get by way of. He signed an identical govt order within the closing weeks of his presidency, however a court docket order later blocked the rule from going into impact underneath the Biden administration.
The pharmaceutical trade argued that Trump’s 2020 try would give international governments the “higher hand” in deciding the worth of medicines within the U.S.. The trade has lengthy argued that forcing decrease costs will damage income, and finally have an effect on innovation and its efforts to develop new medicines.
Solely medication on Medicare Half B — the insurance coverage for physician’s workplace visits — are prone to be coated underneath the plan. Medicare beneficiaries are accountable for selecting up a number of the prices to get these drugs throughout physician’s visits, and for conventional Medicare enrollees there is no such thing as a annual out-of-pocket cap on what they pay.
A report by the Trump administration throughout its first time period discovered that the U.S. spends twice as a lot as another international locations in overlaying these medication. Medicare Half B drug spending topped US$33 billion in 2021.
Extra frequent prescribed drugs crammed at a pharmacy would most likely not be coated by the brand new order.
Trump’s submit formally previewing the motion got here after he teased a “very huge announcement” final week. He gave no particulars, besides to notice that it wasn’t associated to commerce or the tariffs he has introduced imposing on a lot of the world.
“We’re going to have a really, very huge announcement to make — like as huge because it will get,” Trump stated final week.
He got here into his first time period accusing pharmaceutical firms of “getting away with homicide” and complaining that different international locations whose governments set drug costs had been benefiting from People.
On Sunday, Trump took intention on the trade once more, writing that the “Pharmaceutical/Drug Firms would say, for years, that it was Analysis and Growth Prices, and that each one of those prices had been, and can be, for no purpose in any way, borne by the ‘suckers’ of America, ALONE.”
Referring to drug firms’ highly effective lobbying efforts, he stated that marketing campaign contributions “can do wonders, however not with me, and never with the Republican Celebration.”
“We’re going to do the best factor,” he wrote.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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