Excert from the Rose Garden Speech on May 26, 2020

    Rose Garden, Washington, DC --  President Trump "And welcome to the Rose Garden as we take powerful action to lower healthcare costs for America’s seniors. Today, I’m proud to announce that we have reached a breakthrough agreement to dramatically slash the out-of-pocket cost of insulin. You know what’s happened to insulin over the years, right? Through the roof. Insulin — so many people, so necessary." "For hundreds and thousands of seniors enrolled in Medicare — that’s a big deal — participating plans will cap cost at just $35 a month per type of insulin, and some plans may offer it free. So for everybody that was getting ripped off and paying tremendous prices — senior citizens — and, Seema, I want to thank you because you brought this to my attention a long time ago, and you worked very hard on this day. And the press won’t even cover it, but they’ll cover things that are unimportant." "But this is a big day for seniors. This is a tremendous saving. And it allows people that — you know, if you don’t take insulin — I just wrote this down — go blind, stroke, amputation, kidney failure, and other things. So we’re getting it down — $35 per month. And it would be anywhere from $50 to $150 to over $200 a month. So it’s a massive cut — I guess, 60, 70 percent. Nobody has seen anything like this for a long time." "Sleepy Joe can’t do this — that, I can tell you. In fact, it was his problem with Obamacare that caused part of your problem. This will save impacted Americans an average of minimum $446, just on insulin costs a year." "We’re pleased to be joined by Vice President Mike Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams. I also want to thank Seema again. Thank you very much for the job you’ve done helping achieve the incredible victory for Medicare patients nationwide." "In the past, Obamacare prevented insurance providers from competing to offer lower costs for seniors. There was no competition, there was no anything, and they ran away with what took place, and the seniors were horribly hurt. Many people couldn’t take insulin; they couldn’t even think about it." As a result, Medicare beneficiaries with prescription drug coverage paid an average of $675 for a year’s supply of insulin, and sometimes as high as $1,500. Harmful laws also meant that seniors often paid a different amount almost every single month. They had no idea what they were paying — they were billed. Every month, they were billed a different amount, and it was a massive amount. "One in every three seniors on Medicare has diabetes, and over 3.3 million beneficiaries use at least one type of insulin. Over the past 10 years, these seniors have seen their out-of-pocket costs for this lifesaving treatment almost double." "I don’t use insulin. Should I be? Huh? I never thought about it. But I know a lot of people are very — very badly affected, right? Unbelievable." That’s why my administration acted decisively. We slashed Obamacare’s crippling requirements and opened up competition like they’ve never seen before. They’ve never seen competition like this. Between transparency and all of the other things we’re doing, nobody has ever had a competitive — competitive situation created like we’ve done it. And the prices, you will see very soon, they’re going to come tumbling down. "Then we brought all the parties to the table — insurers, manufacturers, and other key players — and reached an agreement to deliver insulin at stable and drastically lower out-of-pocket costs for our seniors." "I hope the seniors are going to remember it, because Biden is the one that put us into the jam because they didn’t know what they were doing. They were incompetent." Soon, nearly half of all eligible Part D and Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans will offer this low-cost option — and when you say “low-cost,” you’re really talking low cost — giving seniors the freedom and choice to pick the plan that’s right for them. "Nothing will ever stop me from fulfilling my solemn duty to America’s seniors. I’ll use every power at my disposal to lower drug prices, and my administration will always protect Medicare and Social Security — and, by the way, preexisting conditions." "And we got rid of the individual mandate, which is a disaster. The worst part of Obamacare was the individual mandate. When we got rid of the individual mandate, essentially we got rid of Obamacare, if you want to know the truth. You can say that in the truest form. But we got rid of a horrible, horrible condition called the “individual mandate.” But we’ll always protect you on preexisting conditions, much more so than the Democrats." Video