Donald Trump has rescinded yet another Biden-era executive order, and drug prices could skyrocket as a result.
The president recently tossed out executive order 14087, a measure taken by Biden in order to cap certain generic drug prices at $2 for Medicare recipients, improve access to expensive cell and gene therapies for Medicaid beneficiaries, and make new medical procedures more widely available by reducing the evidence gathering process required for drugs. The order was made to allow average Americans faster and more widespread access to affordable care.
Trump trashed it, and the internet is up in arms.
While Trump didn’t personally raise the cost of prescription drugs, he did remove one of the barriers that prevents pharmaceutical companies from doing so. While Biden’s order has been rescinded, there are still numerous laws and regulations in place to prevent price gouging for drugs. Pharmaceutical companies do not have free rein over drug prices, yet, but some Democrats believe that the killed executive order is a harbinger of high drug costs to come.
“Donald Trump is already following through on his dangerous plans to jack up the costs of drugs to appease his billionaire backers” said Democratic National Committee rapid response director Alex Floyd in response to the decision. “He lied to the American people and doesn’t care about lowering costs—only what’s best for himself and his ultra-rich friends.”
Lawmakers are joining in Floyd’s calls for alarm. In a letter to Trump, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Bernie Sanders wrote that the president should ““flat out reject any request to end negotiations from giant pharmaceutical makers that have spent decades putting profits over patients.” The Senators argue that there is “no legal basis” that would allow pharmaceutical companies to “increase costs for over 60 million Medicare beneficiaries.”
According to Bloomberg, pharmaceutical companies are trying to bend the president’s ear. Drug manufacturer Eli Lilly & Co. has petitioned Trump to pause drug price negotiations. Biden’s policies currently allow the U.S. government to buy drugs at a lower cost in order to distribute them to Medicare recipients. While these policies have yet to be rescinded, some worry that it soon will be. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has petitioned the Trump administration not to overturn the policies, saying they grant everyday Americans “substantial benefits” and that repealing them would be a “grave mistake for our nation.”
While the undoing of Biden-era healthcare policy signifies that the Trump administration could kowtow to the pharmaceutical industry, the industry itself isn’t so sure. Executives from Eli Lily and Pfizer recently met with Trump at his Mar a Lago estate in order to get a sense of the president’s intended policies. They reportedly fear Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services Chair Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has claimed that the American pharmaceutical industry is deeply corrupt. The pharmaceutical executives argued that Trump’s choice for HHS chair was the sign of a “desire to go after the pharmaceutical industry.”
Despite executives’ fears, Kennedy Jr. is no knight in shining armor when it comes to rescuing American healthcare. He takes issue with Big Pharma over vaccines, which he falsely believes cause autism, and he even tried to get the Covid-19 vaccine shelved only six months after its release. Though Kennedy Jr. may share progressive skepticism over the pharmaceutical industry, his plans to address the industry’s shortcomings are just as destructive.
While there isn’t a conclusive answer surrounding Trump’s healthcare plans, its clear that the president intends to steer America away from the course the Biden administration put it on, no matter how many U.S. citizens suffer in the process.
Published: Jan 21, 2025 11:10 pm