As the moment when premiums double approaches, Trump is pressuring health insurance giants to reduce prices.

President Donald Trump of the United States announced that he will convene a meeting with numerous American health insurance companies in the coming weeks, attempting to pressure these companies to lower the cost of health insurance for Americans facing premium increases after the Obamacare subsidies expire at the end of the year. For the Trump administration, the subsidy "cliff" directly impacts the bills of tens of millions of voters, easily turning into a sensitive issue of public opinion and elections during a period of high living costs. Therefore, Trump is attempting to take the initiative by convening a meeting to pressure the companies, portraying an image of "solving the problem" and seeking to gain the trust of more low-to-middle-income voters, further galvanizing support for the 2026 midterm elections. "I'm going to convene these insurance companies," Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday local time. "To put it very simply, I'm going to see if they can bring prices down across the board." Trump indicated that the meeting could take place next week, either at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida or during the first week of January after he returns to Washington. He emphasized that the idea came to him on the spot during an event where he heard executives from major pharmaceutical companies promise to donate drugs as part of an agreement to avoid tariffs by the Trump administration. After Trump made these statements, the stock prices of leaders in the American health insurance industry, such as UnitedHealth Group Inc., Cigna Group, and Humana Inc., all major insurance companies, saw significant gains narrow, ending Friday on a downward trend amidst a rise in the three major U.S. stock indices. The industry organization AHIP, representing health insurance companies, stated that premiums mainly reflect the costs of healthcare and that the profit margins and administrative costs of insurance companies are regulated. "Health insurance plans in the United States are doing everything possible to protect Americans from the increasing and escalating costs of healthcare," AHIP CEO Mike Tuffin said in an email statement. Trump stated that while he still prefers a plan that provides direct subsidies for Americans to purchase insurance, an important agreement to reduce costs may help preserve the Obamacare deal and the actual outcomes of this crucial healthcare reform. He emphasized in the interview that insurance companies "are making too much money, they have to make less, a lot less." He said, "Maybe we can come up with a reasonable healthcare solution without kicking them off the list or causing chaos." For the Trump administration, it is more effective to send a strong signal to the industry before pushing for large-scale financial subsidies (costly and with large internal divisions), aiming to buffer the impact of the 2026 premium hike through promises of industry concessions/cost controls, thus buying time and space for subsequent legislation. Members of the U.S. Congress left Washington earlier this week without announcing an extension of the subsidies. By 2026, the average health insurance premiums of over 20 million Americans are expected to double or become even more expensive, making it difficult for many low-to-middle-income American voters who are already worried about the rising costs of housing, groceries, utilities, etc., to continue to afford expensive insurance premiums. When legislators return to Capitol Hill next month, they will have less than two weeks to address this crucial premium issue for low-to-middle-income voters before open enrollment ends on January 15. The Democratic party has been closely following the issue of rising Obamacare premiums for six months, making it a core demand of their voters, and during the six-week government shutdown this fall, it was placed at the center of negotiations between Republican and Democratic representatives. Undoubtedly, such public pressure from the Trump administration will raise uncertainty about the future profit margins and rate paths of American insurance companies, resulting in a short-term negative impact on sector valuations. This is why after Trump's remarks about lowering premiums, the stock prices of American health insurance giants collectively fell, reinforcing the good policy image of the Trump administration striving to "control healthcare costs." Additionally, on the same Friday in U.S. Eastern Time, President Trump announced that he had reached a drug price reduction agreement with nine pharmaceutical giants. A series of agreements were made by pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices of some U.S. drugs in exchange for a three-year tariff exemption. According to the latest agreement, nine pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, Genentech under Roche, Novartis, Eli Lilly, Gilead Sciences, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amgen, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi, pledged to lower prices for drugs provided to low-income and disabled individuals under the Medicaid program, directly sell discounted drugs to consumers, and launch new drugs in the U.S. at prices equivalent to those in overseas markets. In the Oval Office at the White House, Trump declared that this new set of agreements represents the "greatest victory" for reducing patient burden in the history of the U.S. healthcare industry, optimistically stating, "Drug prices in America will quickly fall and soon be the lowest among developed countries."