Trump’s Actions Offer Patients Nothing, Boost Big Drug Companies, and Weaken Medicare Negotiation
While Republicans shut down the government to hike our health care costs, Trump touted a so-called “deal” with Pfizer, which is a total gimmick. It does nothing to meaningfully lower drug costs for patients, and further enriches drug companies. In fact, Trump just signed a massive multibillion dollar giveaway to big drug companies into law by exempting more high cost drugs from having lower prices negotiated by Medicare.
Trump’s announcement with Pfizer does nothing to reduce patients’ drug costs. People with Medicaid are already protected from high drug costs, and setting up a website where people can buy a narrow set of prescription drugs out-of-pocket is a solution no one is asking for.
- “The vast majority of Americans shouldn’t expect to see any material changes to their pharmacy bill on account of Pfizer’s White House agreement.” – Bloomberg
- “The deal will not directly benefit people on Medicaid because they already pay almost nothing in out-of-pocket costs. Federal law caps those costs at $8 per prescription for people with the lowest incomes. In some states, people with Medicaid face no out-of-pocket costs at all.” – New York Times
- “The reality is that this is an announcement for a small set of drugs for which a lot of patients are already paying pretty low prices at the pharmacy counter,” said Rena Conti, an associate professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.
Trump’s announcement boosted Pfizer’s stock price. Trump’s deal is nothing new, just more of the status quo – many of Pfizer’s manufacturing commitments had already been made and pharmaceutical companies continuing to greedily line their pockets while now evading tariffs.
- In the hours and days following the Oval Office press conference with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s stock price bounced, indicating the deal was favorable for the company’s profitability, not for patients. Most-favored-nation pricing within Medicaid is “immaterial” for Pfizer as the program represents less than 5% of U.S. sales, a Leerink Partners analyst note on the deal concludes.
- BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan David Seigerman said [of the deal]: “much of that spending might already have been planned, but it should help to ingratiate the company with the administration.”
- Trump is all talk when it comes to going after big drug companies. 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.
- The deal does nothing to address the root cause of high drug prices: pharmaceutical greed. Pharmaceutical company forecasts have remained positive since Trump took office, even rejoicing over their latest legislative win. In the first half of 2025, 14 top drugmakers made over $81 billion in net profits and spent over $62 billion rewarding shareholders with stock buybacks and dividends.
Trump’s announcement is an attempt to distract from his multibillion dollar giveaway to big drug companies and his elimination of health care for millions of Americans.
- Trump signed Republican legislation that carves out top-selling products from Medicare drug price negotiation, ensuring drug companies’ exorbitant profits remain untouched while seniors continue to be forced to choose between putting food on the table and affording the health care they need to survive.
- Because of the Republican Budget law, patients with Medicare will no longer see price relief for some of the most expensive drugs on the market.
- Trump is also trying to distract from how he is raising premiums, out-of-pocket costs, drug costs, and medical debt by the thousands for millions of Americans while giving trillions in tax breaks to corporations and the uber wealthy.
- Low-income families will bear the brunt of the Trump-GOP tax scam and the largest health care cuts in history. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, families making $24,000 or less a year will lose $1,200 each year thanks to cuts while families making over $700,000 a year will pocket $13,600.
Trump’s announcement adds to his long record of failing to lower drug prices.
- Drug prices soared under President Trump:
- A recent report found that since Trump took office the prices of 688 drugs have increased by a median of 5.5 percent.
- The Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that list prices for 20 of the top 25 drugs covered by Medicare Part D saw price increases between three and nine times the rate of inflation in 2017.
- A report from AARP found that the annual cost for 267 brand-name medicines commonly used by seniors increased by 5.8 percent in 2018, more than twice the rate of inflation. In 2019, more than 4,000 drugs saw price increases averaging 21 percent according to Rx Savings Solutions. And in 2020, prices increased faster than inflation for half of the drugs covered by Medicare.
- During his first term, Trump’s major drug pricing proposals were total failures:
- Trump signed four executive orders aimed at reducing drug costs, but experts pointed out that the measures were very limited and none were immediately enforceable. Pharma CEOs themselves said they were “not expecting any impact” from these executive orders.
- Trump failed to implement the state-sponsored prescription drug importation plan, the Medicare Part B international reference pricing plan, or reform the Medicare Part D rebate system.
- This term, Trump blew a huge loophole in Medicare drug price negotiations, handed out massive tax breaks to big drug companies, eliminated a Biden-era program that would allow seniors to purchase generic drugs for just $2, revoked a Biden-era policy to require Medicare coverage for anti-obesity drugs, and hiked the cost of seniors’ prescription drug coverage.