(TNND) — President Donald Trump touted the launch of the TrumpRx website as “one of the most transformative health care initiatives of all time,” a place for Americans to access dozens of deeply discounted brand-name medications.
“This is a big deal,” Trump said at the launch announcement Thursday. “This is a very big deal. People are going to save a lot of money and be healthy.”
Experts are less convinced this will move the needle much on drug affordability and access.
“Overall, TrumpRx is not going to lower the prices that most people pay for drugs,” said Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
A small share of the American public may be able to find better deals on their medicines, Dusetzina said Friday via email.
But folks with insurance are mostly going to be better off sticking with their plan’s co-pay, she said.
And people looking to pay cash for generic drugs are going to be better off going through existing sites like GoodRx or Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company to find a deal, Dusetzina said.
“It is not clear to me at this point who would benefit the most from this,” said Sujith Ramachandran, an associate professor at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy. “It is apparent that the only individuals that can take advantage of this are individuals that are either uninsured or individuals that are willing to pay for drugs with cash without going through insurance. And, as you can imagine, that is a very small proportion of Americans.”
Simon Haeder, an associate professor of public health at Ohio State University, said people looking to buy weight-loss or fertility drugs that aren’t covered by insurance might be the biggest winners.
And Haeder said Trump can score a publicity win for doing something to address affordability concerns.
“From actual benefiting, I think this will be a very, very small group,” Haeder said.
The TrumpRx website launched with 43 drugs listed at 50% to over 90% off the original price.
Ozempic, often used for weight loss, shows a price drop to $199 from over $1,000.
Wegovy is listed at $149, discounted from over $1,300.
And Gonal-F, a prescription fertility medication, is featured on TrumpRx for under $170, down from an original price of over $950.
“One in three Americans are turned away from the drug store. They can’t afford the drugs,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said at the launch event. “No more. Our most vulnerable are protected.”
Trump said he secured deals with drugmakers to sell their medications to Americans under “most favored nation” pricing.
The government-operated website connects people with the discounted drugs by either referring customers to the drugmakers or providing discount codes that customers can take to their local pharmacy.
TrumpRx is free to use.
And officials said more drugs are coming soon to the site.
Dusetzina, Ramachandran and Haeder said people with insurance – whether it’s through work, Medicare Part D, or the Obamacare marketplace – are likely to have lower co-pays than even the deeply discounted prices listed on the TrumpRx site, as long as the medication is covered by insurance.
Most medications are covered by insurance, Haeder said. Though he said some of the drugs people want for weight loss are only covered if someone has diabetes.
And most co-pays are generally reasonable, he said.
They also said generic versions of any of the listed drugs are likely to be cheaper than the brand-name discounts on TrumpRx, though not all of the medications have generic versions.
Haeder said a potential downside of buying medications out-of-pocket via TrumpRx rather than through insurance is that the TrumpRx route won’t count towards a person’s deductible.
And he said TrumpRx is the result of deals worked out between the administration and drug companies, without being codified into law by Congress.
That introduces some degree of uncertainty into the program, Haeder said.
“Legally and ethically, there’s certainly some concerns, let alone you get a new administration in three years,” he said. “Are these still binding agreements? What happens then?”
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