Health care costs could plummet in Trump's Medicare price revamp

President Trump is taking aim at “foreign free riding” by other nations and wants Americans to have the same benefits that produce lower drug prices, according to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

The plan, unveiled by Trump in a speech last Thursday at the Department of Health and Human Services, calls for Medicare to negotiate better deals with pharmaceutical companies.

“Right now pharma is giving these discounts to other countries,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar to FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Tuesday. “And you know what we are doing? We are currently paying the list price plus a 6 percent markup in our program.”

According to Azar, the new payment system would potentially save the American taxpayer and seniors billions in healthcare costs.

“So we are just saying give us some of this, end this foreign freeriding off the backs of the American taxpayer and America’s seniors, and it will lead to $17 billion in savings over 5 years for the Medicare program and $3.4 billion of savings for America’s seniors,” he said.

Azar said the savings will kick in by early 2020.