The proposal was welcomed as an initial step from lawmakers and groups like AARP. But it got a tepid response from Elizabeth Rowley, the founder and director of T1International, a diabetes advocacy group that organized a trip from the United States to Canada last month to help consumers buy insulin. She called the move a “Band-Aid.”

“This is kind of a distraction from the real issue, and the real problem,” Ms. Rowley said, “which is pharmaceutical companies are setting costs at exorbitant rates and patients are suffering and dying.”

Lobbyists for the drug industry swiftly denounced the proposal as well, repeating longtime arguments that allowing drugs to be imported from Canada could open the door to counterfeit products. “The administration’s importation scheme is far too dangerous for American patients,” the industry’s main trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said in a statement. “There is no way to guarantee the safety of drugs that come into the country from outside the United States’ gold-standard supply chain.”

Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been debating legislation that would allow importation of drugs to obtain cheaper prices, and other measures to try to rein in costs. But leading members of Congress have said that major proposals won’t be fully prepared before September.

The new policy is an about-face for Mr. Azar, who like other Republicans has been skeptical about importing drugs from other countries.

In May 2018, Mr. Azar called the idea a “gimmick” and said: “They are a lovely neighbor to the north, but they’re a small one. Canada simply doesn’t have enough drugs to sell them to us for less money, and drug companies won’t sell Canada or Europe more just to have them imported here.”

But over the past year, the tone has shifted as Republican state leaders have joined Democrats in talking about importing drugs from Canada. The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, favors such a plan, and in May Mr. Trump directed Mr. Azar to help make it happen. Vermont also has a law allowing importation. But the federal government has not yet cleared any states to do so and an H.H.S. official said Wednesday that the regulations would need to be finalized before any applications could be evaluated.