Trumps’ first week in office was a flurry of Executive Order after Executive Order. There was one that has caused much concern and worry with seniors, especially those on Medicare, and the news headlines did little to quiet those concerns. Trump rescinded a 2022 Biden Executive Order that addressed additional means to lower prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients.
Biden’s Executive Order of 2022 encouraged Medicare to explore pathways to lower drug costs and the costs of cell and gene therapies, and to reduce Medicare funding on drugs cleared by the Food and Drug Administration’s accelerated approval process. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) developed three models in February 2023 based on Biden’s Executive Order
The first model would have encouraged Medicare drug plans to offer a copayment for certain inexpensive generic drugs capped at $2/month/drug. This was only a developed model and had not yet been implemented by CMS. All work on these three models has since stopped.
Trump’s efforts to undo Biden’s accomplishments, however, do NOT affect the Inflation Reduction Act, which included placing a $35 per month cap on insulin, a $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs for Medicare recipients, and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug pricing. The Inflation Reduction Act was congressionally passed legislation and cannot explicitly be overturned by an Executive Order.