President Donald Trump has issued a proposal, dubbed the Great Healthcare Plan, as a means to lower drug prices, reduce health insurance premiums and increase price transparency in the US healthcare system. Although not providing specifics, the proposal serves as a broad policy framework and signals the Administration’s policy priorities for addressing costs and affordability issues in the US healthcare system.

With respect to drug pricing, the plan calls on Congress to codify the Trump Administration’s recent actions to achieve the Administration’s policy goal of most-favored-nation drug pricing. The premise behind most-favored-nation drug pricing is that the US pays higher prescription drug costs comparative to other developed countries and therefore assumes a larger share of the costs of drugs and that measures should be taken to reduce the differential in the prices of prescription drugs in the US compared to other developed countries, where prescription drug prices are lower.

The Administration has advanced most-favored-nation drug pricing through executive action and recent individual deals with the large bio/pharmaceutical companies to lower drug pricing in tandem with measures to achieve other policy goals of the Administration of increasing US-based capital investment in return for bio/pharmaceutical companies receiving exemptions of certain tariffs. Last July (July 2025), the Trump Administration sent letters to 17 bio/pharmaceutical companies to outline the steps they must take to be in alignment with most-favored-nation drug pricing following the issuance of an Executive Order last May (May 2025) in which the Administration was seeking voluntary compliance with most-favored-nation drug pricing. Since then, the Trump Administration has struck individual deals with bio/pharmaceutical companies, which depending on the company, included specific measures on drug pricing, certain tariff exemptions, and a commitment by these companies for US-based capital investment. The Great Healthcare Plan released by the White House this week (January 15, 2026) seeks to have these negotiated deals with the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services grandfathered in.

Also, as means to address prescription drug costs, the Administration’s Great Healthcare Plan calls on making more verified safe pharmaceutical drugs available for over-the-counter purchase. “This will lower healthcare costs and increase consumer choice by strengthening price transparency, increasing competition, and reducing the need for costly and time-consuming doctor’s visits,” said the White House in a January 15, 2026, statement on its plan.

Source: The White House