President Trump has signed his executive order seeking lower prescription drug prices. It gives the pharmaceutical industry 30 days to introduce new, lower prices in the U.S. Violators will face new limits on what the government will pay under Medicare and Medicaid.
The order tasks Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to broker new prices for drugs over the next month. If that doesn't work, he will be instructed to develop a new rule tying the price of drugs in the U.S. to the prices paid in other countries.
"We're going to pay what Europe pays," Trump said in the Monday signing ceremony at the White House.
The order came as the Republican-led House released its proposed budget that would trim $880 billion from Medicaid. What the net effect of the lower drug prices and the budget cuts will be and whether consumers will enjoy any benefits.
Critics noted that the program does not appear to have any benefit for consumers who have private insurance, since the government has no direct control over what drug companies charge them.
A "bad deal," drugmakers say
Drug companies, as expected, said the program will be a "bad deal" for patients and the healthcare industry and will hinder spending to develop new drugs.
“Importing foreign prices from socialist countries would be a bad deal for American patients and workers,” Stephen J. Ubl, the president and CEO of PhRMA, said in a statement. “It would mean less treatments and cures and would jeopardize the hundreds of billions our member companies are planning to invest in America.”
Seniors unsure of the effect
Senior groups were mostly still sorting out their reaction although one, the Senior Citizens League, raised its estimate of next year's COLA — the cost of living increase applied to Social Security beneficiaries.
"TSCL predicts Social Security’s 2026 COLA will be 2.4 percent, up from last month’s prediction of 2.3 percent. That’s also 0.1 percentage points lower than 2025’s COLA, which was 2.5 percent," the organization said in an email to ConsumerAffairs.
Whatever programs are adopted, TSCL said seniors are likely to continue facing economic headwinds because of drug prices.
"The 2025 Senior Survey, which featured responses from 1,920 Social Security—eligible Americans, found that 20 percent spent at least $1,000 monthly on healthcare costs," TSCL said. "Meanwhile, it found that 57 percent of American seniors get by on less than $2,000 of take-home income per month."
The survey found that that 39 percent of American seniors rely on Social Security for 100 percent of their income, while 57 percent get by on $2,000 per month or less of monthly take-home earnings.
"For many of these seniors, a COLA that doesn’t keep pace with inflation means a drop in their living standards," the group said.