President Donald Trump Monday said he will implement a prescription drug payment plan that could dramatically lower prices paid by Medicare and possibly Medicaid, although details remain murky.

Trump claimed his proposed plan to tie drug prices to those paid in foreign nations would lower payments by the U.S. by up to 90%, although experts said it’s unclear if the plan is legal or how exactly it would work.

“Whatever the lowest price is in other developed countries, that’s the price we’ll pay,” Trump said in a rambling press conference that touched on his wider global trade war and other issues.

“We can get prices down 60, 70, 80 even 90%,” Trump added. “It’s even more than that when you think of it mathematically.”

Big Pharma has already pushed back on the Trump plan, calling price controls a “bad deal” for American patients. Drugmakers have long argued that any threats to their profits could impact the research they do to develop new drugs but Trump says the world should pay a bigger share of those costs.

“Importing foreign prices will cut billions of dollars from Medicare with no guarantee that it helps patients or improves their access to medicines,” Stephen J. Ubl, the president and CEO of PhRMA, said in a statement.

Trump’s so-called “most favored nation” approach to Medicare drug pricing has been controversial since he first tried to implement it during his first term. He signed a similar executive order in the final weeks of his presidency, but a court order later blocked the rule from going into effect.

It appears that the plan will not directly lower prices paid by consumers for prescriptions at drug stores. It’s likely the executive order would only directly impact drugs covered by Medicare Part B, the insurance on doctor’s office visits for older America.

The White House says the plan would also lower prices for Medicaid, which covers tens of millions of poor and disabled Americans, and even consumers, although it didn’t explain how that might work.

Officials added that the plan will focus most on the drugs for which prices are much higher in the U.S. than overseas, which could include popular weight loss and diabetes treatments called GLP-1 drugs.

Trump regaled reporters with a story about a wealthy friend who bought what he called “the fat drug” in Britain for a much lower price than he paid in the U.S. for the same treatment.

The U.S. spends far more than other countries in covering those drugs, a fact critics in both parties have highlighted for years. Medicare Part B drug spending topped $33 billion in 2021.

Trump says the new plan will save taxpayers and consumers big bucks. But many Americans won’t see any savings.

Trump’s proposal would likely only impact certain drugs covered by Medicare and given in an office — like infusions that treat cancer, and other injectables.

Medicare provides health insurance for roughly 70 million older Americans. Complaints about U.S. drug prices being high, even when compared with other large and wealthy countries, have long drawn the ire of both major political parties, but a lasting fix has never cleared Congress.

Trump did not explain if his order would require congressional approval, although he said it would be included in his sprawling “One Big Beautiful” budget bill that GOP leaders are struggling to push through Congress.

The Republican bill aims to make huge cuts to both Medicaid and Medicare that non-partisan budget analysts say would cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance.

_____

©2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.