Trump MFN Pharma Deals Exempt Medicare, Hit Medicaid — SkimNews
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- White House announced new drug pricing deals on Monday with midsize biotechnology companies, a topic Trump views as politically valuable for Republicans heading into the midterm elections.
- The voluntary agreements, called most-favored nation (MFN) deals, are built on the principle that the United States should pay prices comparable to those of peer nations.
- The deals chiefly apply to Medicaid, which by law already receives the lowest prices of any U.S. payer — limiting how much new savings the agreements can generate.
- Participating companies are exempted from mandatory price reductions in Medicare, the program where binding cuts would have the largest fiscal impact.
- Analysts cited by STAT said the voluntary deals might not amount to much, at least not immediately, given the structural limits of where they apply.
Why it matters: The deals are designed to score political points ahead of midterms, yet by targeting Medicaid — which already gets the lowest U.S. prices by law — and exempting companies from Medicare's mandatory reductions, the agreements structurally avoid the program where binding savings would actually move the needle for taxpayers and seniors.
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