The Trump administration has yet to deliver to Americans the low drug prices that every other wealthy nation offers their citizens, President Trump’s professed goal. Instead, Trump has unveiled a “TrumpRx” website, that does little if anything to make prescription drugs affordable for Americans. The biggest beneficiaries of TrumpRx likely will be the pharmaceutical companies.
In return for offering some brand-name drugs directly to Americans, pharmaceutical companies participating on TrumRx will not have to pay tariffs or engage in future drug price negotiations with the government. In addition, Trump exempted certain high-priced drugs like Keytruda and Opdivo, which treat cancer, from Medicare drug price negotiation.
How will the pharmaceutical companies benefit? They have the ability to sell more brand-name drugs. Under the HHS rules for TrumpRx, pharmaceutical companies can send people to affiliated telehealth physicians for prescriptions. But, these physicians have been found in some cases to steer people to costly brand-name drugs rather than to generic alternatives.
How does TrumpRx work? It is an online hub through which Americans pay out of pocket for any of roughly 50 drugs directly from pharmaceutical companies. Experts believe it will help pharmaceutical companies to sell their brand-name drugs and steer people away from low-cost generic substitutes and drugs their health insurance covers. Anyone who buys their drugs on TrumpRx will not be able to count their payments towards their insurance deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.
Though President Trump promised to bring drug prices down to the level other countries pay, many drugs on TrumpRx have prices that are twice as high as they are in the United Kingdom and Australia, according to Protect our Care. TrumpRx offers discount coupons for drugs that were already available to people in the US.
Before buying a drug through TrumpRx, see if there’s a generic substitute. Protect our Care reports that half of the drugs listed on TrumpRx have lower-cost generic substitutes. If not, check out Amazon and GoodRx for lower prices, if your insurance won’t cover the drug.
This all said, keep in mind that your Medicare Part D prescription drug plan also might also charge you more in copays for your drugs than mail-order pharmacies charge for the prescription. It’s always worth checking.
Some Democratic Senators, including Dick Durbin, Peter Welch and Elizabeth Warren, are concerned that TrumpRx is a recipe for fraud and conflicts of interest, including telehealth providers steering people to high-cost brand-name drugs.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Online pharmacies can save you money
- Case study: Costco saves one couple hundreds of dollars over Medicare Part D
- GAO finds US drug prices more than four times those in France
- 2026: Medicare drug coverage and costs
- Rx Inspector helps you avoid unsafe generics
