Remarks by President Trump on the America First Healthcare Plan | Eastern North Carolina Now

    And they're attacking me viciously. We know that. And they're attacking me, really, because I'm fighting for you. But it's worth the fight. It's worth the fight. I think people are going understand. (Applause.)

    And I can say this, I think - I don't think it's confidential. Our chief of staff is here, Mark Meadows, from a very great state, known as North Carolina. (Applause.) Happens to come from North Carolina. That's good stuff. He wanted to be here for that reason, probably more than even listening to this, because you've heard it. But Mark will tell you that Big Pharma is calling and negotiating and negotiating, and they want to make a deal.

    And there's a deal somewhere, but it's - it's something that's taking place right now. So they're negotiating. But this is where we are, and they're negotiating for one reason; before that, they wouldn't even think about negotiating with any other administration. They would - they cannot believe this is actually happening.

    And if we can make a deal, we will. But, Mark, you're negotiating, literally, as we speak, right? So if he doesn't make a great deal, we'll blame North Carolina, okay? (Laughter.) So that's great. No, Mark is a real pro at this. Understands it - complicated business, but he understands it very well.

    Today, my administration is taking action on every piece of the executive order I signed on prescription drug importation in July. The American people pay an average of over - listen to this - three times more for medicine than Canadians. So you could be two feet away on each side of the border - three times more. And that's the way it is. Canada is far more than many other countries.

    My plan will allow states, wholesalers, and pharmacies to do something career politicians have promised for decades - because it was very simple as an idea - but never delivered. We will finally allow the safe and legal importation of prescription drugs from Canada.

    So this means - (applause) - so this means a state or whatever - it can go to Canada and buy your drugs for a fraction of the price that they're charging right now. Massive numbers of - tremendous numbers. Florida wants to do it, Colorado wants to do it - many states want to do it, and they will be doing it. But that's still higher than the favored nations. So as favored nations kicks in, I think that probably beats everybody no matter where you are, no matter where you're trying to buy.

    This will be a game changer for American seniors. And by allowing you to do this through Canada, we're doing it very, very quickly. So it goes very fast. And the new rule goes into effect as of today. Is that fast enough? I think so. What do you think? (Applause.) Our congressmen.

    The America First Healthcare Plan includes another historic provision to benefit our great seniors. Under my plan, 33 million Medicare beneficiaries will soon receive a card in the mail containing $200 that they can use to help pay for prescription drugs. Nobody has seen this before. These cards are incredible. The cards will be mailed out in coming weeks.

    I will always take care of our wonderful senior citizens. Joe Biden won't be doing this. (Applause.) And this is also partially because of the tremendous money that we're going to be saving with the favored nations and various other things that we've done.

    We've approved more affordable generic drugs than any administration in history. I had no idea, but I have had many doctors who I have great respect for, by the way, come to me. And I said, "Well what's the difference between this and this?" One is a very well-known name; one is just a pill in a bottle with no tag on it. And they said, "Zero." I said, "Must be a little bit better, right? The name - zero." And yet, the name brand will cost five and even 10 times more money than the generic. So we've approved more generic drugs than anybody - at a rapid pace too.

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    We're also requiring that low-income patients receive the benefits of government discounts on insulin and the EpiPen, and that - you know, that is a big - that is a big deal. That is a big deal. Insulin is one of the most common medicines for seniors. (Applause.) And this is something that Seema worked on so hard.

    Insulin prices soared under the last administration like you wouldn't believe. Right, Seema? Under my plan, hundreds of thousands of Medicare patients will see their insulin costs capped at just $35 a month. That's a 66 percent cost reduction. (Applause.) And this feature will be avail- - available on over 1,600 Medicare plans that seniors can begin signing up for starting October 1st. And under certain circumstances, Seema, it's literally almost free. This insulin, which they were just ripping you on, is close to being free - even lower than the $35 a month. So, you did a fantastic job on that. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

    And Seema would come to my office, "Sir, I have something so exciting." She worked on that for a long time in getting that done. But it was - it is exciting. If you need insulin - a lot of people were going without it. They just couldn't afford it. Now they can definitely afford it.

    We'll accelerate our relentless effort to save seniors money on their premiums. Since I took office, we reduced Medicare Part D premiums by 12 percent, Medicare Advantage premiums are also down dramatically - a 44 percent reduction in North Carolina - (applause). That's good. Forty-three percent lower in Pennsylvania. And a 54 percent lower price in Michigan. So that's something. (Applause.) And we have them all over the country. All over the country, there are numbers just like that.

    We'll ensure that all seniors pay the same price for the same service, whether at a hospital, a surgery center, or a doctor's office. This will save seniors billions and billions of dollars a year. We're talking about the billions. And it also saves our government a lot of money, but we'll save our senior citizens billions of dollars a year. Fantastic job.

    We're putting into place the largest package of saving for seniors of any administration in history. No administration is even close to what we've done. And I've said it, having to do much more than even healthcare, there's no administration in its first three and a half years that's done anywhere close to the things we've done. And I never even get criticized for saying it. That must mean it's true, right? My congressman and my great senator. (Applause.)

    Under the Democrat plan, costs will skyrocket. Our seniors will lose the benefits they paid into their entire - I mean, they've been paying for their entire lives tremendous amounts of money - all to finance socialism and open borders. I mean, we're just helping other countries - countries that aren't even friends of ours. But we help our friends and we help socialism all over the world and we hurt our people, and we're not doing that any longer. (Applause.)

    As long as I'm President, no one will lay a hand on your Medicare. Your Medicare is going to be safe and it's going to be solid. (Applause.)

    The final pillar of America First Healthcare Plan is better care. That's better care for American patients. (Applause.)

    The historic action I'm taking today includes the first-ever executive order to affirm it is the official policy of the United States government to protect patients with preexisting conditions. So we're making that official. (Applause.) We're putting it down in a (inaudible) because our opponents, the Democrats, like to constantly talk about it, and yet preexisting conditions are much safer with us than they are with them. And now we have it affirmed. This is affirmed, signed, and done so we can put that to rest. They'll say it anyway because it's disinformation. (Applause.) Disinformation.

    Same thing goes for Social Security. Remember, during the last campaign four years ago, they kept saying I was going to destroy Social Security? I made Social Security stronger, better. They will be the ones that destroy Social Security because they're going to destroy our country; they will destroy our economy. So Social Security - nothing happened. I keep saying, "Whatever happened to Social Security?" Remember? "He is going to immediately attack." No, just the opposite. Your Social Security is 100 percent with me, but it's not 100 percent with them.

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    Any healthcare reform legislation that comes to my desk from Congress must protect the preexisting conditions or I won't sign it. And I made that pledge and I made that pledge last week, but now I'm making it in writing. We're putting it down, and we have it signed and we have it sealed. (Applause.)

    The new Democrat lie is that they will cover preexisting conditions, but in truth, the socialist takeover, economic shutdowns that they talk about - if you look at this state, frankly, where you have Democrat governors, Democrat leaders. Those states - those states are in very, very bad shape with all of their shutdowns.

    Pennsylvania - you take a look at what's going on in Pennsylvania with the shutdown. We just won a big court case, where a judge - a great federal judge - ruled it unconstitutional what they were doing. They're hurting people. There's damage on the side of a shutdown. People don't realize, with suicides, and drug use, and all of the - alcohol. It's a terrible thing that happens. And Michigan is another state - the shutdown is very severe.

    By the way, on November 4th, I'm sure everything will be open. They'll announce on the evening of November 3rd that we're opening up. (Applause.) Unless these unsolicited ballots don't come in for weeks and weeks and weeks, you know? They want them to come in over a long period of time. It's going to be a very interesting day: November 3rd. It's going to be a very interesting day.

    And coverage for illegal immigrants will collapse - our economy will collapse under their system and make your healthcare system totally insolvent. You know that. As great doctors and people that do this, you know that. What they're doing is socialized medicine, and it's not acceptable. It's going to be a disaster, in terms of quality and cost. It'll ruin our country.

    Under their plan, you'll lose your doctor again and you will lose your coverage. You will lose everything having to do with what we're talking about. On my watch, I will never let the radical left take away your healthcare. You'll always have healthcare. (Applause.)

    The America First Healthcare Plan will deliver another long awaited reform: We will put you in control of your own medical records when we - (applause). Good. We'll require doctors to make your records available electronically, and you'll own them, and you'll control them, and they will be portable, and you'll be able to work seamlessly with all of your medical providers. It'll make your life a lot easier. Much, much easier.

    The previous administration, led by Sleepy Joe Biden, spent $35 billion and failed to get it done. You know that - $35 billion. Where they failed, we are delivering.

    To give critically ill patients access to lifesaving treatment, I also signed Right to Try. You know what Right to Try is. I'm very - (applause) - to me, Right to Try is so great. It's so great.

    And what I think I'd like to do - I'll do it really quickly. I'm going to run through just a quick list of accomplishments that we've done. And, you know, we've really become the healthcare party - the Republican Party - and nobody knows that. (Applause.) The news doesn't talk about it.

    But I'm going to just say - I mean, it's a list of things that we've done, and it'll go quickly, but I just thought I'd take it out. I said, "You know, I'd like to read that to the audience of professionals today." And this is just a partial list.

    We repealed the individual mandate; eliminated Obamacare's health insurance, medical device, and the Cadillac taxes. That's a big deal. (Applause.) People forget all of this. They say, "I wonder who did that? Could it have been Joe Biden?" He doesn't know what it is. (Laughter.)

    Expanded association health plans; increased availability of short-term, limited-duration plans. (Applause.) Expanded health reimbursement arrangements - big deal. Lowered prescription drug prices - and you will see them at a level that you will never - you'll never see this again. They will go down so low. (Applause.) And as I said, we had the largest annual decrease. We had the only decrease over a 52-year period.

    More generic prescriptions approved, savings America - saving America an estimated $2.6 billion in the first 18 months of the administration alone. So, in 18 months, we saved $2.6 billion with generic drugs.

    Signed four executive orders to lower prescription drug prices. Signed legislation banning pharmacy gag clauses. Does that makes sense to you? (Applause.) I mean, what - what people were under. What even the pharmacist had to do was - it made them - it was embarrassing to them.

    Took executive action to ensure price transparency and healthcare. That'll be one of the biggest things, and most people have no idea what it means. And I said - some people said, "That's bigger than healthcare."

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    Required hospitals to post standard prices on the Internet. Modernized and strengthened Medicare with more options, more benefits, and lower premiums substantially. Improve kidney care - such a big deal - with more transplants and better treatment. Kidney care is so tough for people with the problem. (Applause.)

    Very substantially lowered the price of insulin, as we said, for our seniors. Invested in advances in generic therapy for sickle cell disease. (Applause.) Big thing. Big thing. Big, big thing.
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President Donald J. Trump Is Implementing His America First Healthcare Agenda News Services, Government, State and Federal Presidential Message on the National Day of Prayer and Return, 2020

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