The president said he would promote more competition among pharmaceutical companies, but didn’t call for Medicare to directly negotiate lower prices or consumers to be able to import low-cost drugs.
Breaking a campaign promise, President Trump will not push for the plan, which was popular with voters but not other Republican politicians, when he speaks on Friday about soaring prescription costs.
Evaluations of state experiments “generally lacked rigor,” and the findings were often kept secret for years, so they were of little use, a government report said.
Mr. Azar, a former drug company executive, immediately confronts two huge challenges: how to rein in drug prices and how to administer the Affordable Care Act.
The Trump administration has unveiled a Medicare program that closely resembles the Obama-era efforts to change the way doctors and hospitals are paid.