Overview:
An estimated six in 10 American adults regularly take at least one prescription drug and many of them have problems affording their medication. For Black Americans living with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mental health conditions drug prices are a major concern.
At first glance, the website the Trump administration launched on Feb. 5 appears to be a solid effort to address the healthcare affordability crisis worrying millions of Americans. Dubbed “TrumpRx.gov,” the cost-free government-run website is intended to help people without health insurance afford prescription drugs.
“You’re going to save a fortune,” President Donald Trump vowed at the site’s unveiling. “And this is also so good for overall health care.”
Well, not quite.
A Site With Big Claims — and Major Limits
Several healthcare advocates say TrumpRx is a knock-off — and not a very good one — of more successful models already on the market. Those discount drug sites, experts say, offer better prices on a wider range of drugs, including generics, with fewer restrictions.
TrumpRx is designed to point Americans to drugmakers’ websites that offer direct-to-consumer pricing. Like those sites, Trump Rx also provides coupons that consumers can use at pharmacies.
Currently, individuals can buy 43 medications, including popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. The site also offers a few fertility medications, insulin products, two brands of asthma rescue inhalers, and a few others.
“Mostly, I think it’s just fuzzy math and no real benefit to the American public. There are 43 drugs on TrumpRx [and] you have to purchase them with cash, without insurance,” says Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Emanuel is an oncologist and world leader in health policy and bioethics.
Trump “championed the fact that we were reducing the prices on Wegovy and all those GLP-1 drugs down to $199 per month,” Emanuel said Tuesday during a press briefing. “That actually works out to $2,400. Most Americans cannot afford $2,400 a year on one drug.”
Uninsured Patients Should Shop Around
At the same time, “more than half of the drugs on TrumpRx are actually cheaper, not going through TrumpRx, but getting them through Good Rx or Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus drug program,” Emanuel said. That’s because the drugs “are generics, and you can get them cheaper on generics, so he’s cutting brand names when there’s already a cheaper alternative.”
An analysis from the medical news website STAT found that generic versions of at least 18 drugs are cheaper on GoodRx or Cost Plus Drugs than the brand-name versions available through TrumpRx. In some cases, consumers who use the generics could save hundreds of dollars by using other platforms.
But consumers with private or government-funded healthcare, including Medicare, won’t be able to use the platform. Consumers also must confirm they are not enrolled in “any government, state, or federally funded medical or prescription benefit programs.” They must also say they won’t apply the drug cost toward a deductible or seek reimbursement from an insurance company.
TrumpRx is part of the Most Favored Nation drug pricing effort the president introduced last year. It requires drugmakers to set prices forin the U.S. market at the lowest price charged to other nations. The administration also uses a Biden-era law that allows Medicare to negotiate for discounts on several prescription drugs.
Last year, the president issued an executive order demanding that pharmaceutical companies lower their prices. Since then, several major drugmakers have reduced prices on some of their products and returned some manufacturing to the U.S. to avoid tariffs the White House threatened to impose on imported medicines.
However, GoodRx and Cost Plus also offer programs for uninsured consumers. GoodRx is also a free service that lets consumers compare pharmacy prices and use coupons to lower their costs. Cost Plus sells medicines at the manufacturer’s price, plus a small fee. This is usually much lower than the retail markup, especially for generic drugs.