Trump’s Executive Orders on Prescription Drugs
President Donald Trump recently signed executive orders that he says will reduce drug prices by 50% “and even greater, in certain instances.” That could happen for some individuals, but it remains to be seen how the orders will be implemented and whether they will result in such large reductions.
The orders, which largely revive past administration proposals, require the Health and Human Services secretary to take various actions, such as moving through the federal rule-making process.
Two of the orders pertain to Medicare beneficiaries — one of those, which is still subject to negotiation with pharmaceutical companies, pertains to only a certain class of drugs. Another order concerns insulin and epinephrine for low-income individuals, and the fourth involves allowing the importation of some drugs.
Trump signed the four orders on July 24, and tweeted the following day: “Yesterday I signed four measures that will massively reduce the prices of prescription drugs, in many cases by more than 50%.”
In a July 28 briefing, Trump repeated the claim:
We’re going to do tremendous — we just signed it three days ago — we’re doing tremendous prescription drug price reductions. Tremendous. It could be over 50% — whether it’s favored nations clauses or anything else. I
