The White House has reached agreements between Medicare and drug manufacturers on 10 drugs, including medications treating heart disease, diabetes and arthritis. The drugs were chosen as part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s provision allowing for the federal health insurance program to negotiate lower prices on prescription medications, and plan to lower costs for millions of Medicare enrollees.
According to estimates from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the newly reduced prices are expected to save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs for people on Medicare, and Medicare itself is expected to net $6 billion in savings in the first year of the new pricing, compared to 2023 prices. New prices are scheduled to take effect starting in 2026.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are traveling to Maryland later Thursday to tout the proposal, their first official joint appearance since the incumbent announced he was stepping out of the race for president in November and endorsing his former runnning mate to take his place.
"For years, millions of Americans were forced to choose between paying for medications or putting food on the table, while Big Pharma blocked Medicare from being able to negotiate prices on behalf of seniors and people with disabilities. But we fought back – and won," Biden said in a statement.
"During the two years since President Biden signed this landmark bill into law, we have cut prescription drug costs, capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month, and lowered premiums for seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare – helping millions of families get the care they deserve," Harris said in a statement of her own, vowing: "Today’s announcement will be lifechanging for so many of our loved ones across the nation, and we are not stopping here."
The ten drugs chosen for negotiation with Medicare include treatments for heart failure, blood clots, diabetes, arthritis and Crohn’s disease — drugs that "millions of seniors and folks with disabilities take," Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said.
The specific drugs that are part of this round of negotiations were not named on the call. However, CMS published a list of drugs selected for negotiations in the first year of new pricing in Aug. 2023, noting that the drugs are used by about 9.7 million Medicare Part D enrollees.
"As someone who has worked on these issues for a really long time, it is a historic moment that this is finally happening," said White House Domestic Policy Adviser Neera Tanden. "As we like to say on landmark health care achievements: This is a big deal," she added, pausing for dramatic effect between the last two words.
Biden’s administration is touting this as a signature achievement for his tenure in the White House — and he’s not being shy about positioning his right-hand woman, and successor, to catch some of the glory.
“This historic milestone is only possible because of the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed with the leadership of Democrats in Congress, and with Vice President Harris casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate — without a single Republican voting for it,” Biden said in a statement.
“During the two years since President Biden signed this landmark bill into law, we have cut prescription drug costs, capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month, and lowered premiums for seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare — helping millions of families get the care they deserve,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in her own statement. Harris also noted that additional prescription drugs will be selected to negotiate with Medicare each year — up to 15 drugs covered by Medicare Part D in 2025, up to 15 more Part B and Part D drugs in 2026 and as many as 20 drugs every year after.
Senior White House officials said that the negotiations were a “true and fair negotiation process” that involved not just drug manufacturers but patient groups, pharmacies, health care providers and insurance plan carriers. But at the center of the process, they added, were Medicare beneficiaries.
The White House’s announcement comes as Harris’s campaign readies an economic plan for her potential administration, which reporters say will include policy proposals to lower costs for food, prescription drugs and housing, as well as plans to ban price gouging on food and groceries.
