Trump’s new “TrumpRx” website is a slap in the face to Americans struggling with prescription drug costs. It doesn’t lower prices, cap out-of-pocket costs, or expand coverage. It’s a useless, dressed-up shopping page that points Americans to discounts they could already find on their own. Most hard-working families won’t save a penny using the site, and experts warn they could actually lose hundreds of dollars by being funneled toward brand-name drugs instead of cheaper generics or medications covered by insurance. The hollow rollout comes as 22 million Americans are reeling from premiums doubling, tripling, and even quadrupling due to GOP premium hikes and 15 million Americans will lose their coverage entirely from Republicans gutting Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Instead of extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits to keep health care affordable, Trump opted for a PR stunt that benefits drug companies, billionaires, and corporate allies — while leaving working families in the dust. Here are the 10 reasons why Trump Rx is an utter joke and a scam:
- Trump “Negotiated” Some of the Worst Discounts You Can Find. Half of the drugs on the website have cheaper generics widely available. People can find better deals through Amazon, GoodRx, and their insurers. Trump also promised “prices in line with the lowest paid by other developed nations” and yet again failed to deliver. Prices on TrumpRx are twice as high as in the UK and Australia for drugs like Ozempic.
- TrumpRx Is No More Than a Coupon Site That Promotes Deals Most Drugmakers Were Already Offering. Trump’s website just takes an old idea and executes it even worse. The website encompasses less than 50 drugs, less than half of which are among the 300 most commonly prescribed, and many of these so-called “deals” were already available to consumers.
- TrumpRx “Deals” Benefit Big Drug Companies Way More Than Americans. Drug companies are getting the better end of the deal than Americans. These discounts are “immaterial” to their bottom lines and in exchange they get to escape tariffs and future efforts to lower drug prices. “If this is all that President Trump does on drug pricing, it is likely a win for the pharmaceutical industry and should serve as a clearing event,” said industry analyst and former Trump administration health official Chris Meekins.
- TrumpRx Gives Drugmakers the Opportunity to Squeeze as Much Profit and Political Goodwill as They Can From Drugs on the Decline. The limited range of drugs featured on TrumpRx have been on the market for a median of 26 years, during which time most of the drugs have lost exclusivity and stopped reaping big profits for brand names. TrumpRx offered the perfect outlet for companies to gain financially by escaping tariffs and politically by pleasing Trump using the last breath of dying products.
- TrumpRx Is a Sham Designed to Distract From Trump Ripping Away Health Care to Give Billionaires and Corporations Like Big Pharma Tax Breaks. Trump passed the largest cuts to health care in history, ripping away coverage from 15 million people and doubling and tripling premiums for millions more, to bankroll taxes for corporations like Big Pharma. In addition, his giant cuts to Medicaid are actually obliterating coverage of GLP-1 weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy for low-income Americans.
- Trump Solicited Millions in Donations From Pharmaceutical Company Executives. Trump is all talk when it comes to going after big drug companies. Earlier this year, he entertained drug company CEOs at Mar-A-Lago, solicited donations, and thanked them with a multibillion dollar loophole drug companies will use to escape Medicare drug price negotiations and raise prices on millions of seniors. He also signed an executive order that read like a wishlist for Big Pharma and helped them evade billions in taxes.
- Trump Handed Big Pharma Their Biggest Victory in Years. Trump handed Big Pharma their biggest victory in years by signing an $9 billion bailout that carved out top-selling products such as lifesaving cancer drugs Keytruda and Opdivo from Medicare drug price negotiation. Countless seniors will be forced to choose between putting food on the table and paying for the health care they need to survive, thanks to Trump.
- Trump Has a Long History of Opposing Drug Price Negotiations. Trump has a long history of opposing the government negotiating lower prices for prescription drugs. Ever since a law giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices passed without a single Republican vote, Trump has done nothing but try to undermine negotiations and carry out the bidding of big drug companies.
- Americans Are Likely to Get Better Deals on Their Drugs Through Their Insurance, but Trump Is Making Coverage Less Affordable for Everyone. Most people are likely to get a better deal on drugs through their insurer but Trump’s reckless tariffs and cuts are pricing millions out of coverage. Trump’s policies doubled and tripled premiums for over 20 million Americans who buy insurance on their own and hiked premiums by 9 percent for the 160 million Americans covered through their employer.
- Purchasing Drugs on TrumpRx Won’t Count Towards Your Deductible and Could Result in You Paying More Out of Pocket. TrumpRx stops payments from counting towards deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums – which will further increase out-of-pocket costs, especially for the millions of people who have been pushed into high deductible plans due to GOP premium hikes.