President Trump signed a paper on Monday. It tells drug companies they have 30 days to make medicines cheaper in the U.S. If they don't, the government will pay less for them later.

The order asks the health department, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to find new prices for medicines next month. If they don't agree, Kennedy has to make a new rule. This rule will connect the price the U.S. pays for medicines to the cheaper prices paid by other countries.

Trump said they would make things fair. He said everyone would pay the same amount, like people pay in Europe.

We don't know if the president's order will change things for people with private health insurance. The government can decide how much it pays for medicines in Medicare and Medicaid.

Trump said he would save money on medicine, but we don't know if it will really happen. This was announced after the government shared a plan to reduce the money for healthcare for people who need help.

The group for drug companies in the US didn't like Trump's plan. They said it was bad for people in America who need medicine. Drug companies have often said that if they don't make enough money, it could stop them from finding new medicines.

Stephen J. Ubl, the head of PhRMA, said that using prices from other countries would not be good for people in America. He said it would mean fewer ways to treat sickness and make people healthy. He also said it would put the money companies want to spend in America in danger.

Trump had an idea about how much Medicare should pay for some drugs. People have not agreed with this idea since he first tried it. Near the end of his time as president, he signed a paper. This paper said the U.S. should pay a lower price for some drugs. These drugs are given by doctors in their office, like shots or medicine for cancer.

That government rule was difficult because a court stopped it under President Biden. The companies that make medicine said that Trump's 2020 plan would help other countries decide how much medicines should cost in the U.S.

On Monday, Trump gave a long speech at the White House. He said that other countries were the reason Americans paid high prices for medicines, not the companies. He was with people like Kennedy, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Marty Makary, and Jay Bhattacharya.

But he also said he would check the companies and let the U.S. buy more medicines from other countries.

Trump stated that pharmaceutical companies earn significant profits from America, adding that he believes this situation is not beneficial.

Over the weekend, Trump talked a lot about the announcement. He said his plan could save "trillions of dollars."

But on Monday, the White House did not say how much money they think they could save.

The health department leaders will meet with drug company leaders in the next month. They will talk about new prices for drugs. The prices will be like the prices in other countries. Oz said this on Monday.

Rachel Sachs, who knows a lot about health laws at Washington University, said that drug prices in America will probably not get cheaper fast because of the order.

Sachs said the plan is to ask companies to lower their prices, but we don't know the price they want. If they don't lower prices enough, the government will do other things over a long time. These things might make medicine prices lower later.

The government's health department can change the prices of medicines for people with Medicare and Medicaid. It can do this because it makes the rules. But its power is not total. In 2022, a new rule was made. This rule lets Medicare talk about the price for some medicines starting in 2026. Before this rule, Medicare paid the price that the medicine companies asked for. The medicine companies went to court to try and stop this new rule, but they lost.

It is harder for the government to change the price of medicines for many Americans who have private insurance.

The U.S. usually pays more for medicine than other big and rich countries. This problem has made the two main political groups angry for a long time, but they have never found a real solution in Congress.

When Trump became president, he said that companies making medicine were doing bad things and making too much money. He also said that other countries were not being fair to people in America because they controlled the prices of the medicine.

Before the announcement, Trump spoke strongly about the drug companies on social media again. He wrote that the companies said for years that research and development costs were paid only by Americans.

He said that money from drug companies could do great things, but it would not work with him or his party.

He said they would do the right thing.

Some companies that make medicines did well on the stock market on Monday morning.