Trump’s Bold Plan to Slash Drug Prices for Seniors Unveiled

The president, Donald Trump, is swiftly pursuing measures to decrease use of government funds for prescription drugs for Medicare, which could lead to an epic standoff with the pharmaceutical industry.

Based on Politico’s findings, Trump plans to introduce a radical executive order next Monday, June 17th, 2025, that would alter the way prices are set.

The main part of the order asks federal health agencies to base the Medicare payment for those drugs on the considerably cheaper prices of the same drugs in other rich nations such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan.

This is the third time Trump has tried to implement this policy, illustrating how much he wants to lower costs for Medicare by comparing prices among countries.

It is planned that steps will be aimed mostly at cutting Medicare Part B costs for regular drugs like chemotherapy or biologics for illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis, along with some expensive vaccines given outside hospitals and in doctors’ offices.

In the short term, Medicare Part D drugs aren’t likely to be included in the framework because they are more complex to deal with.

It is reported that finalizing the full list of prepared medications and detailing the choice of comparison countries are still unfinished, and the White House may reconsider them before the President gives the last approval.

The timing follows the public clues that Trump has let out. While meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday, Trump said that he would make an announcement within the next week that would be “one of the most important ever made about a certain matter.”

Although one source made the direct connection between this statement and the drug pricing initiative, the other two could not verify it, still they agree that the proposal will be made public soon.

Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, showed how eager people should be by confirming the excitement, without revealing anything about the announcement set for Monday.

In recent weeks, Trump has personally tried to reduce drug costs by pushing his staff to develop policies that could achieve a lot of savings.

At first, the administration pushed congressional Republicans to include the “most favored nation” idea in their massive bill. Implementing this idea, the international reference pricing approach would have been used for drugs covered by Medicaid as well.

Even so, opposition inside the GOP stopped this approach, and resulted from concerns raised by the pharmaceutical industry and some healthcare providers.

Due to the problem with the legislation, the White House is beginning to rely only on executive power and authority held by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI).

Since its creation under the Affordable Care Act, CMMI has wide powers to try new payment models designed to control costs and sustain quality in the same way that was tried with the 2020 plan.

Bringing back this policy would start another heated fight. Powerful groups such as PhRMA have kept pushing the idea that fixing drug prices based on international values hurts consumers and harms the industry.

They argue that this would greatly reduce the income they use for testing and developing new treatments and cures, which might lead to fewer innovations and prevention of some people in the U.S. having access to emerging therapies.

Opponents to the movement are likely to intervene quickly, in huge numbers, and use a lot of resources. In addition, an approved executive order is almost guaranteed to encounter legal challenges soon after being signed.

The administration’s earlier effort in late 2020 did not go through because it failed to go through all the official steps, like allowing people and groups to comment and consider how the policy would affect seniors on Medicare and those providing the care.

Some say that more arguments about how the review was done and whether CMMI went beyond its powers could arise, along with accusations that such a policy breaches administrative law.

From what is reported, the upcoming order is likely to copy the 2020 model and will give even fewer specifics about which drugs will be provided, indicating that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will work out the complications and specifications later by issuing its own regulations.

Trump’s administration may expect that the new appointees to the courts might support them now.

At the same time, Trump took advantage of Truth Social to make judicial appointments, still affecting the nation’s judges. The president put forward Maria Lanahan, Missouri’s Principal Deputy Solicitor General, for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, where he called her a true patriot.

The President referred to Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Judge Cristian Stevens, a judge serving now, as a “great patriot” as well. In addition, Trump said on a different occasion that, because of the courts, he cannot act on valuable election duties, highlighting that many issues, including drug pricing, will probably end up in the courts.

These factors make way for a major war that will be fought on various fronts. If Trump goes ahead with the order, HHS and CMS will have to create the new rules and then face a strong reaction from industry.

The pharmaceutical sector may also file various lawsuits right away, claiming that the policy is misguided and involves overreaching the law.

Whether or not the Medicare drug pricing plan can be put into practice depends on both the final wording of the executive order and the administration’s skill in handling regulations, as well as on what the federal courts decide.