By Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay Reporter<\/b>
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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 22, 2025 (HealthDay News) — With a sweep of the pen, President Donald Trump has ended a Biden administration effort to lower the cost of prescription drugs for people on Medicare and Medicaid.<\/p>\n
Trump’s order, signed shortly after his inauguration on Monday, targets policies his administration calls “deeply unpopular” and “radical,” NBC News<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n One of those now-cancelled policies directed Medicare to investigate ways to slash drug costs, including the possibility of a $2 monthly out-of-pocket cap on some generic medications.<\/p>\n Monday’s actions also follow through on a key goal of Trump’s first term — weakening the Affordable Care Act. In particular, he nixed a policy that gave uninsured adults in 36 states an extra 12 weeks to sign up for coverage, according to NBC News<\/em>. He also reversed an order that included more outreach funding to states, which was designed to make Medicaid stronger.<\/p>\n A key provision in former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act<\/a>, negotiating Medicare drug prices, remains untouched for now. Last week, Medicare unveiled a list of prescription drugs up for negotiations next. They included Ozempic<\/a> and Wegovy, the popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs.<\/p>\n A $35-a-month cap on insulin<\/a> costs and $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs were not affected by the executive order signed Monday, NBC News<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n Arthur Caplan<\/a>, head of medical ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, told NBC News<\/em> that it appears that Trump is moving with “great caution.” Biden’s bigger initiatives have so far been left alone, he noted.<\/p>\n He said the president knows that health care costs in the United States are far higher than in other parts of the world and that the government may need to intervene.<\/p>\n “Right now, he seems to be nibbling on the edges,” Caplan told NBC News<\/em>.<\/p>\n Larry Levitt<\/a>, an executive vice president at KFF, a health policy think tank, offered a similar assessment.<\/p>\n He told NBC News<\/em> some of the cancelled policies once meshed with Trump’s goals, suggesting a possible change in his priorities.<\/p>\n By cancelling Biden’s order to investigate new ways to lower out-of-pocket spending on prescription medications, Levitt said Trump may be signaling that he is less serious about addressing health care costs.<\/p>\n “Trump is kind of wiping the slate clean,” Levitt concluded. “If you contrast Day 1 of this Trump administration with the last one, it is a different approach to health care.”<\/p>\n More information<\/strong><\/p>\n There’s more about seniors’ drug coverage at Medicare.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n