• Posted January 22, 2025

Trump Ends Push To Slash Prescription Drug Costs

With a sweep of the pen, President Donald Trump has ended a Biden administration effort to lower the cost of prescription drugs for people on Medicare and Medicaid.

Trump's order, signed shortly after his inauguration on Monday, targets policies his administrations calls "deeply unpopular" and "radical," NBC News reported.

One of those now-cancelled policies directed Medicare to investigate ways to slash drug costs, including the possibility of a $2 monthly out-of-pocket cap on some generic medications.

Monday's actions also follow through on a key goal of Trump's first term -- weakening Obamacare. In particular, he nixed a policy that gave uninsured adults in 36 states an extra 12 weeks to sign up for coverage, according to NBC News. He also reversed an order that included more outreach funding to states, which was designed to make Medicaid stronger.

A key provision in former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, negotiating Medicare drug prices, remains untouched for now. Last week, Medicare unveiled a list of prescription drugs up for negotiations next. They included Ozempic and Wegovy, the popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs.

A $35-a-month cap on insulin costs and $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs were not affected by the executive order signed Monday, NBC News reported.

Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, told NBC News that it appears that Trump is moving with "great caution." Biden's bigger initiatives have so far been left alone, he noted.

He said the president knows that health care costs in the United States are far higher than in other part of the world and that the government may need to intervene.

"Right now, he seems to be nibbling on the edges," Caplan told NBC News.

Larry Levitt, an executive vice president at KFF, a health policy think tank, offered a similar assessment.

He told NBC News some of the cancelled policies once meshed with Trump's goals, suggesting a possible change in his priorities.

By cancelling Biden's order to investigate new ways to lower out-of-pocket spending on prescription medications, Levitt said Trump may be signaling that he is less serious about addressing health care costs.

"Trump is kind of wiping the slate clean," Levitt concluded. "If you contrast Day 1 of this Trump administration with the last one, it is a different approach to health care."

More information

There's more about seniors' drug coverage at Medicare.gov.

SOURCE: NBC News