The Latest Trump Executive Order and the Reality of Prescription Drug Prices: Actions Speak Louder than Words

This week, the White House released another Executive Order, acknowledging the very real need to address high and rising prescription drug prices, and Families USA welcomes the Trump administration’s stated commitment to helping patients and the public address high costs of needed medications. But the EO mischaracterizes what this administration is actually doing—and not doing—to achieve lower prices.

Families and seniors across the country need relief from exorbitant prescription drug and health care costs, and they are urging policymakers to take concrete actions to build upon recent gains in prescription drug affordability, and to crack down on the role of corporate health systems in driving up health care costs.

While this EO makes reference to an array of potential policy options, it does not have any binding authority to ensure meaningful policy change. In fact, the EO could actually cause harm, for example by signaling to Congress that the President would support legislation that would undermine the recently enacted and wildly popular Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, specifically by making it even longer before many commonly used drugs could become eligible for negotiation and thus delay price reductions for people and families. While we support some of the order’s specific proposals like additional transparency and review of anti-competitive practices, Families USA is highly skeptical that this EO advances its stated goals given this administration’s recent actions that threaten access to affordable drugs and undermine drug innovation, including the mass firing and funding freezes for programs at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), proposing new rules that make coverage more expensive in the ACA marketplace, and supporting legislation that would rip affordable health care like Medicaid away from millions of families.

In 2022, Congress took historic steps to lower drug prices with the Inflation Reduction Act and creation of the Medicare negotiation program, and while we are glad this order does not seek to repeal the law, we are concerned about efforts to undermine it in policy or in practice. Instead, this administration should continue implementing to its fullest extent because it is already working to lower drug prices for people.

With affordability being a major focus of last year’s election, the Trump administration and Congress have an obligation to the American people, and an opportunity to go further to advance commonsense and bipartisan solutions that address rising drug and other health care costs by implementing policies such as drug patent reforms, strengthening hospital price transparency requirements, and addressing dishonest billing practices across the health care industry. To that end, we support the EO’s reference for advancing site neutral payments – or Same Service, Same Price solutions – for physician-administered drugs used in cancer treatment, a reform that had significant bipartisan support in the last Congress. If enacted, this reform would be a step forward to rein in the ability of big health care corporations to drive up health care prices for the American people. The administration should use its existing authority to move this reform forward but most importantly should work with Congress to pass this and a broader set of same service, same price policy reforms into law that would ensure patients are paying the same regardless of where they receive care. These policies would not only reduce costly bills for consumers but also provide significant savings to the Medicare program and broader health system.

Policymakers are right to acknowledge the very real challenges that American families face in accessing affordable health care. But it is not enough to pay lip service to this cause. And certainly not while simultaneously taking steps to undermine access to health care and the most significant drug pricing reform for seniors in decades. Instead, the Trump administration and Congress must take meaningful and lasting action to reduce drug and health care costs and fulfill the promises they made to address the rising prices American families continue to face.