WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Friday afternoon that he plans to convene a summit of health insurance CEOs to browbeat them into lowering prices — after he successfully coerced pharmaceutical companies to do so using the threat of tariffs.
Trump made the off-the-cuff announcement mere hours after venting on social media about insurers “ripping off America,” citing a Post op-ed on record corporate profits.
“I would say that maybe with one talk they would be willing to cut their prices by 50, 60, or 70%,” Trump said at a White House event where nine more pharmaceutical executives bent to his demands to reduce drug costs to align with rates paid by other developed countries.
“They’ve made a fortune. They’ve had stock prices that have gone up 13,14,15, 16, 17 and even 18 — think of this — they went up 1,800%… Therefore, there’s a lot of fat that can be cut,” Trump said, without detailing what levers of federal power he would use to sway insurers.
Trump said “this is just an idea that I had standing here watching these great leaders saying that we’re going to have the lowest prices anywhere in the world.”
The president vowed to pressure widely detested insurance industry leaders as he seeks to calm the public’s affordability concerns, which have tanked his approval rating on economic matters ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
“I’m going to call a meeting. It could be in Florida this coming week, or it could be back in the White House the first week, not the second or third week. I’m going to call a meeting of the big insurance companies that have gotten so rich by receiving money — and really far, far more money than they’re entitled to,” Trump said.
“And I have a feeling maybe… they would act like these incredible, brilliant, responsible citizens behind me… I’m going to see if [the executives will] get their price down, to put it very bluntly.”
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The insurance executive summit would come as roughly 22 million middle-class Americans who buy insurance policies through Affordable Care Act exchanges experience higher premiums as a result of expiring pandemic-era subsidies, which congressional Democrats have fought to extend.
“I’m going to call in the insurance companies that are making so much money, and they have to make less — a lot less — and maybe we can have reasonable health care without having to cut them out and let it all go awry,” Trump said.
“So we’re going to be calling a meeting. It’ll be either in Florida or it’ll be here the first week [of 2026].”
‘World War III size headlines’
At the same event, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. implored the media to give “World War III size headlines” to the decision by nine more pharmaceutical companies to lower prices after Trump threatened stiff tariffs.
The major Friday afternoon announcement means that 14 out of the top 17 drug companies now are bending to Trump’s demand of “most favored nations” pricing.
“By the end of this term, for 95% of the drugs we will have MFN. In other words, Americans will be paying the lowest price in the world,” RFK Jr. said at the White House Roosevelt Room event.
“People are talking about affordability. Nobody has done anything for affordability greater than this.”
The 14 firms agreeing to Trump’s demands — in exchange for a three-year waiver from new tariffs — include GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck, Sanofi, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Gentech, Amgen and Gilead.
Bristol Myers Squibb committed at the event to make its most prescribed drug, blood thinner Eliquis, free to Medicaid, which insures poor Americans.
Under the agreements, the companies will on-shore production while lowering their prices for Medicare, which insures senior citizens, and Medicaid to align with rates paid by other developed countries, which officials said would lower the costs of 30-40% of drugs.
The companies additionally will list certain medicines at steep discounts on the forthcoming TrumpRX website, primarily benefiting uninsured or poorly insured Americans, which is due to launch in January, and are committing medical donations to US strategic stockpiles.
The firms further committed to charge US consumers and insurance companies MFN rates for all new drugs — a reform that’s expected to be felt by the roughly two-thirds of Americans who have private health insurance.
The final three major pharmaceutical companies are expected to make commitments at the White House next week.
