If you voted for Donald Trump, did you really think he’d do anything to bring prices down or help people?
In an executive order signed Wednesday called “Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for Americans,” President Trump rescinded an executive order by President Joe Biden that would offer a $2 monthly charge for Medicare drugs to treat diabetes, high cholesterol, and thyroid issues for people with Medicare Part D.
An executive order signed in 2022 by President Biden directed the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or CMS to look at strategies to make prescription drugs less expensive for Medicare recipients.
“Too many Americans face challenges paying for prescription drugs,” Biden said in the order. “On average, Americans pay two to three times as much as people in other countries for prescription drugs, and one in four Americans who take prescription drugs struggle to afford their medications.”
Nearly three in 10 American adults who take prescription drugs say that they have skipped doses, cut pills in half, or not filled prescriptions due to cost, he said.
The CMS proposed capping the price of some generic drugs at $2 for Medicare beneficiaries, improving Medicaid access to high-cost cell and gene therapies, and streamlining the evidence-gathering process for new drugs.
“The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government,” Trump said in rescinding Biden’s order on prescription drugs and other Biden executive orders.
He said the revocations within the order will be the first of many steps the U.S. federal government will take to repair the nation’s institutions and economy.
The Trump administration is unlikely to continue the three programs that were developed under Biden’s executive order, including lower prices on some prescription drug for Medicare recipients, so their potential drug price reductions won’t be realized.
