{"id":5510,"date":"2026-08-18T18:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510"},"modified":"2026-08-18T18:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:13:16","slug":"bidens-favor-to-trump-on-cheaper-drug-prices-includes-a-largely-forgotten-law-to-make-medicare-more-powerful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s favor to Trump on cheaper drug prices includes a largely forgotten law to make Medicare more powerful"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The plunging prices, the White House said, resulted from the Republican president\u2019s\u00a0\u201cmost favored nation\u201d drug deals\u00a0with pharmaceutical firms and\u00a0the TrumpRx website, which it said are \u201cdelivering real relief to American families and putting patients first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more OpenAI data center deal with Nvidia comes in $145 billion lower than reported\u2014signaling concerns of artificial demand for chips<\/a><\/p>\n

The real picture is more complicated, said drug pricing experts, who noted that other factors, including a law from Democratic President Joe Biden\u2019s time in office that allowed Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, are potentially more significant contributors to the latest consumer price index figures.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Also at play, they said, are generic and\u00a0biosimilar products\u00a0that have come onto the market, offering competition that drives down the price of expensive brand-name and biologic drugs. In addition, the prescription drug price index measured by the Labor Department and released last week doesn\u2019t directly reflect how much consumers pay \u2014 it measures how much pharmacies get paid for the drugs, both by insurers and consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to know in one number what\u2019s going on beneath the hood,\u201d said Juliette Cubanski, a vice president and director of the Program on Medicare Policy at the healthcare research nonprofit KFF. \u201cI don\u2019t think we can attribute this price reduction to any one specific policy change or initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about the decline in prescription drug prices:<\/p>\n

Competition and policy both contribute to changing prices<\/h4>\n

Drug pricing experts said both market competition and various policy changes have influenced prescription drug prices in recent years.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On the market side, \u201cwhen big blockbuster products face generic competition, their prices fall,\u201d said Dr. Benjamin Rome, a health policy researcher at Harvard Medical School.<\/p>\n

For example, he said, various biosimilar drugs have arrived on the market to treat the same autoimmune conditions as the brand-name drug Humira, offering similar treatment at a lower cost.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Similarly, competition has led to price reductions for Stelara, a popular biologic medicine that treats chronic inflammatory conditions, said Stacie Dusetzina, a professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Biden-era federal policies also likely played a role \u2014 most notably\u00a0the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which for the first time allowed Medicare to haggle with drugmakers over the cost of the top-selling prescription drugs in the program.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

New prices for the first 10 of those negotiated drugs launched in January, a change Cubanski, Rome and Dusetzina all said likely made an impact on aggregate prices. The Trump administration has carried forward those negotiations, as mandated by law, and projects additional savings on prescription drugs in the years ahead.<\/p>\n

A new Trump administration policy lowering the price of GLP-1 weight loss drugs for certain eligible Medicare enrollees could also be playing a role in driving down prices, the experts said. But that went into effect in July, so only its first month is reflected in the data.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to measure the impact of MFN deals and TrumpRx<\/h4>\n

Trump has sought to attribute the drop in prescription drug prices to his \u201cmost favored nation\u201d deals to bring U.S. pharmaceutical prices to the same level as other developed countries.<\/p>\n

Read more Alibaba\u2019s $2 billion gaming exit signals where Beijing wants its money<\/a><\/p>\n

Drug pricing experts said the actual impact of those deals so far is unclear, since the contracts with drug companies have not been made public and the models designed to put MFN policies into practice in federal health programs have not gone into effect yet.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThese policies are under development and have not affected payers in the index,\u201d Dusetzina told The Associated Press in an email. \u201cUltimately, I believe that the change is likely to be more directly related to the IRA\u2019s policies and the Medicare drug price negotiation program than it is to current policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts lauded TrumpRx, the White House\u2019s website funneling Americans to the best deals on a variety of prescription drugs, for bringing a helpful resource and more price transparency to the public.<\/p>\n

But they said it\u2019s unclear how many Americans are making use of the service. In addition, many of the brand-name drugs it has featured are cheaper with insurance or have lower-cost generic versions sold elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The White House said the website has generated $700 million in savings for patients but didn\u2019t explain how it reached that figure. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts last week questioned that claim in a letter to the Trump administration, saying\u00a0Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u00a0has admitted that TrumpRx doesn\u2019t store patient, health or prescription information.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWithout this information, the accuracy of any claim of savings made by the Trump administration is unreliable,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Many consumers still face high drug costs \u2013 and rising health costs overall<\/h4>\n

Even as the consumer price index shows a year-over-year drop in drug prices, experts warned consumers aren\u2019t necessarily seeing that in their budgets.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

That\u2019s because the Labor Department\u2019s figures measure not what consumers pay directly but what pharmacies are paid by insurers and consumers. Insurers often eat much of the cost, and what patients pay can depend on a variety of factors, including whether they are insured and what plans they have. Plus, some Americans still rely on expensive drugs that don\u2019t have cheaper alternatives yet.<\/p>\n

Higher health spending and federal policy changes are also resulting in higher insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs for many Americans. That could mean even as drug prices decline, they\u2019re paying more for healthcare than they once were.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cA price measure like the CPI is not going to adequately capture consumers\u2019 experience with healthcare and prescription drugs and other hospital services, the same way it would for groceries and gas and other tangible services that people go and pay for at the store,\u201d Rome said.<\/p>\n

Read more A dropout living in a trailer, he got $1 million from Peter Thiel at 19\u2014now he\u2019s a billionaire who says the American Dream isn\u2019t dead<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump touts “most favored nation” deals and TrumpRx for the 3.1% annual price drop. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-donald-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nBiden\u2019s favor to Trump on cheaper drug prices includes a largely forgotten law to make Medicare more powerful - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biden\u2019s favor to Trump on cheaper drug prices includes a largely forgotten law to make Medicare more powerful - Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trump touts "most favored nation" deals and TrumpRx for the 3.1% annual price drop.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-18T18:13:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa\"},\"headline\":\"Biden\u2019s favor to Trump on cheaper drug prices includes a largely forgotten law to make Medicare more powerful\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-18T18:13:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510\"},\"wordCount\":1022,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/cc18d6dfbbdf2f75d573be58cb1bc188.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Donald Trump\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510\",\"name\":\"Biden\u2019s favor to Trump on cheaper drug prices includes a largely forgotten law to make Medicare more powerful - Cross Country Moving Team\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/cc18d6dfbbdf2f75d573be58cb1bc188.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-18T18:13:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/cc18d6dfbbdf2f75d573be58cb1bc188.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/cc18d6dfbbdf2f75d573be58cb1bc188.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=5510#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Biden\u2019s favor to Trump on cheaper drug prices includes a largely forgotten law to make Medicare more powerful\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cross Country Moving Team\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Biden\u2019s favor to Trump on cheaper drug prices includes a largely forgotten law to make Medicare more powerful - Cross Country Moving Team","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Biden\u2019s favor to Trump on cheaper drug prices includes a largely forgotten law to make Medicare more powerful - Cross Country Moving Team","og_description":"Trump touts \"most favored nation\" deals and TrumpRx for the 3.1% annual price drop.","og_url":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510","og_site_name":"Cross Country Moving Team","article_published_time":"2026-08-18T18:13:16+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa"},"headline":"Biden\u2019s favor to Trump on cheaper drug prices includes a largely forgotten law to make Medicare more powerful","datePublished":"2026-08-18T18:13:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510"},"wordCount":1022,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cc18d6dfbbdf2f75d573be58cb1bc188.webp","articleSection":["Donald Trump"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510","url":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510","name":"Biden\u2019s favor to Trump on cheaper drug prices includes a largely forgotten law to make Medicare more powerful - Cross Country Moving Team","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cc18d6dfbbdf2f75d573be58cb1bc188.webp","datePublished":"2026-08-18T18:13:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cc18d6dfbbdf2f75d573be58cb1bc188.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cc18d6dfbbdf2f75d573be58cb1bc188.webp","width":1200,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5510#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Biden\u2019s favor to Trump on cheaper drug prices includes a largely forgotten law to make Medicare more powerful"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/","name":"Cross Country Moving Team","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}