Trump Makes an Announcement on Healthcare: Most Favored Nation Drug Pricing Extended to Medicaid, Sep. 18, 2026
September 18, 2026 · The White House · 0:56:02
Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube
What happened
President Donald Trump announced at the White House on September 18, 2026, that his administration would “officially extend the benefits of our most favored nation agreements on prescription drug prices to state Medicaid programs all across the nation.” He said the administration had reached agreements with 26 of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs to Americans at discounts of “60, 70, 80, and even 90%,” so that “we pay the lowest prices in the world” — a reversal, he said, from paying the highest. Many of the discounts, he said, were already available to consumers on TrumpRx.gov; the new step provides the same most favored nation discounts directly to state Medicaid programs covering nearly 70 million Americans.
The President said all 50 states — “red and blue” — plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico were participating. He cited the Council of Economic Advisers’ estimate that extending the deals to the states “will save Medicaid over $64 billion,” said others projected more, and pointed to the $50 billion rural-healthcare investment he said Congress had passed. He thanked Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Deputy CMS Administrator Abe Sutton, along with Governors Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Tate Reeves, and Larry Rhoden.
Dr. Oz, speaking at the event, said the 26 companies represented 90% of all drugs, that Americans had been paying “three times more for the exact same drugs that other countries are paying,” and described the launch as an all-of-government effort in which every state realized it needed to take the deal.
Why it matters
Drug pricing is the signature health promise of this administration, and Medicaid is where it meets state budgets directly. This is the portfolio of Secretary Kennedy at HHS and Dr. Oz at CMS, and the figures named here — participation, discounts, and savings — are concrete enough for the scoreboard to test against state Medicaid spending as it publishes.
Scoreboard watch
This is a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard: a launched program with named figures — 26 pharmaceutical companies, discounts of 60–90%, nearly 70 million Medicaid enrollees covered, all 50 states plus DC and Puerto Rico participating, and a CEA-estimated $64 billion in Medicaid savings. The scoreboard will check state participation and realized savings against each figure.
Sources: The White House, “President Trump Makes an Announcement on Healthcare, Sep. 18, 2026” (official upload, embedded above; the upload’s description places the announcement at the White House). All figures and characterizations as stated by the President and Dr. Oz at the event.
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