US President reduces prices for medication

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Lerato Khumalo

Trump thinks step is “earth -shattering”

US President reveals secret

Updated on May 12, 2025 – 11:01 a.m.Reading time: 3 min.

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US President Trump sits in his study in the White House. (Source: Kent Nishimura/Reuters)

Taga -length coquetted Trump by making a significant announcement soon. Now it is out: it’s about the high costs for medicines. The Republican has already failed.

The announcement announced by US President Donald Trump has now been out of date: he wants to reduce the prices for prescription medication and is targeting the pharmaceutical industry. On Monday morning (local time) he will sign one of the “most consequent decrees” in the history of the United States, the Republican announced on his online language tube Truth. There he had previously written that he would make “one of the most important” announcements. Last week, Trump announced a “earth -shattering” announcement. US media had already speculated that it could be about prices for medicines.

Medicine prices are an important topic in the USA. So far there is no central state price regulation that applies to all medicines. The pharmaceutical industry plays the most important role in the question of how much a medication costs, state influence is limited. This leads to sometimes enormously high prices, in international comparison, many medication in the USA is significantly more expensive. In Germany, on the other hand, various forms of state regulation apply.

Trump sees the United States disadvantaged because of the high prices. The world is wondering why prescription drugs in the United States are so much more expensive than in other countries in the world, even though they are made by the same company in the same laboratory, he wrote. “It was always difficult to explain and very embarrassed, because in truth there was no correct or justified explanation.” Trump promised that drug prices in the United States would “almost immediately” decrease by 30 to 80 percent. “The prices worldwide will increase to do a balance and – for the first time in many years – to bring justice for America!”

Trump wants to ensure that in the USA is no longer paid for certain prescription drugs than in other countries. It is open whether it is only about medicines that are covered by the state health insurance program for seniors (Medicare) – or Trump wants to go one step further with the price regulation. This could be particularly difficult – pharmaceutical companies are likely to defend themselves against the plan anyway.

Trump wants to take action against the high prices with the “Most Favored Nation” system. He had already promoted this unsuccessfully during his first term. The idea is to link the reimbursement prices for medication to the lowest price of wealthy comparison countries in order to reduce the high medication costs in the USA. In this way, the pharmaceutical companies should be forced to accept internationally comparable prices. The proposal was never implemented, there was legal and political resistance. In Trump’s message, it now sounded as if it were not just about comparison prices in certain countries. Trump wrote that the United States would pay the same price as the country, which would pay the lowest price for a medication worldwide.

Trump continued: “Election campaign donations can work wonders – but not with me and not with the Republican Party.” His government will now do the right thing – something for which the Democrats have been fighting for years. The regulation of medication was one of Trump’s central themes in office, Joe Biden. In 2022 Biden signed a large law package that also authorized Medicare to negotiate certain medication prices. Bidens measure was considered a milestone.