President Donald Trump promised to reduce drug prices for Americans; he's doing it in a variety of ways, and Americans already are paying less for drugs.
His administration has negotiated through Medicare to reduce the price of 10 drugs, including Eliquis, Jardiance, and Xaretto, effective Jan. 1, and will add 15 more drugs, including Entresto and Stelara, on Jan. 1, 2027. He further has required that Part D plans – Medicare's prescription drug benefit – cover all selected drugs.
This year's modifications reduced prices on drugs that treat diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, hepatitis, and even some forms of cancer.
And as of earlier this month, Americans can buy drugs through Trump Rx, which is designed to fulfill Trump's promise to end the problem of Americans paying up to 10 times as much as the rest of the world for drugs made in American factories with the same dosages and quality control. The administration has introduced most-favored-nation pricing for Americans, meaning we pay for prescriptions the same as pharmaceutical companies charge their largest, most favored international customers.
On top of that, the Trump administration's Federal Trade Commission announced earlier this month a landmark settlement with Cigna/Express Scripts, one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit managers (the firms that negotiate prices between providers and wholesalers of drugs).
Under the deal, Express Scripts agreed not to put high-priced drugs on its list of drugs offered through formularies when lower-priced drugs are available. It agreed not to tie compensation of its executives to the list price of drugs, ensuring the share patients pay for drugs is based on the net cost, not the higher list price, and providing covered access to the TrumpRx program.
Those changes will remake the pharmacy benefit management industry into a fairer, more transparent model where prices are "based on the actual acquisition cost for a drug product plus a dispensing fee."
Put another way, it will ensure that consumers get the best possible drug prices, which is exactly what they deserve. According to estimates, they will save $7 billion in out-of-pocket drug costs over the course of a decade.
"Kudos to Cigna for working with the Trump admin on a solution here," former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in response to the news. "Hopefully, everyone else in the industry eventually does the same."
Trump's political opponents naturally took issue with the president's drug reform progress, but Trump's dealmaking addresses much of their complaints.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., for example, whined that Trump hadn't allowed the government to personally negotiate savings for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, as permitted through the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.
Sen. Kaine is off base. Trump, in fact, has negotiated savings on 10 drugs through the Inflation Reduction Act-enabled process. And he has also dropped prices on 33 other drugs – eight of which are cheaper on TrumpRx than anywhere else.
Yes, for now, as other critics have charged, TrumpRx is cash only, meaning those on insurance cannot claim these savings. But the administration's decision was to get the benefit to the American people and perfect it as it went along.
One critic claimed TrumpRx is "aimed at the people who voted him back into the White House – MAGAs who don't have health insurance or cheap insurance with sky-high deductibles." That author may be surprised to learn that far more than MAGAs fit that description.
Besides, if the government is going to dispense money for health care, shouldn't those be the beneficiaries? Would they prefer the president focus on reducing drugs for millionaires?
Unlike the historic Cigna/Express Scripts PBM reform, TrumpRx is neither perfect nor a finished product. "Many more drugs are coming soon," the program's website promises. But people without insurance or with "skinny" plans can get Wegovy for $149 a month now, down from $1,349 this time last month. Ozempic is down from $1,028 to $199 per month. Those drugs are not covered at all by many insurance policies, and some are available through coupons at our local pharmacy right now.
It's real easy to be critical of new programs. But no administration has done anything to significantly reduce the price of prescription drugs since Part D was created in 2006. One finally is, and it's worthwhile to wait and see how things progress.
Brian McNicoll is a freelance writer and a former senior writer for The Heritage Foundation.
