President Biden and Vice President campaign in Maryland (Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough/AP)
By Karen Stokes
On Thursday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris appeared together for the first time since Biden withdrew from the presidential race. They focused on fulfilling their commitment to reducing out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors and saving money for Americans.
The Inflation Reduction Act enabled Medicare to be able to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time in history.
According to White House.gov, because Medicare is now able to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for seniors and people with disabilities, American taxpayers are expected to save $6 billion on prescription drug costs, and people enrolled in Medicare are expected to save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs in 2026 alone.
President Biden and Vice President Harris took on Big Pharma and won, and now millions of seniors and others on Medicare will soon see their drug costs go down on some of the most common and expensive prescription drugs that treat heart disease, cancer, diabetes, blood clots, and more.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long, long time,” President Joe Biden said Thursday. “We pay more for prescription drugs, it’s not hyperbole, than any advanced nation in the world.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, wasted no time getting into campaign mode highlighting the new drug deals, especially since no Republicans supported the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and it barely passed Congress in 2022.
“Two years ago, as vice president, I was proud to cast the tie-breaking vote that gave Medicare the power to negotiate,” Harris said to cheering crowds. “In the two years since, we’ve been using this new power to lower the price of life-saving medication.”
Taxpayers spend more than $50 billion annually on the 10 new drugs.
The new prices will go into effect for people with Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage in 2026: Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica, Stelara, Fiasp; (Fiasp FlexTouch; Fiasp PenFill; NovoLog; NovoLog FlexPen; NovoLog PenFill).
These ten drugs are among those with the highest total spending in Medicare Part D. If the negotiated prices had been in effect during 2023, Medicare would have saved an estimated $6 billion. When the negotiated prices go into effect in 2026, people enrolled in Medicare Part D are estimated to save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs.
With the new prices, the administration says savings are expected to total $6 billion for taxpayers and $1.5 billion overall for some of the 67 million people who rely on Medicare. Details on those calculations, however, have not been released.
More drugs will be selected each year as part of Medicare’s drug price negotiation program. Medicare will select up to 15 additional drugs covered under Part D for negotiation in 2025, up to an additional 15 Part B and D drugs in 2026, and up to 20 drugs every year after that.
The President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 builds on this success by significantly increasing the pace of negotiation, bringing more drugs into negotiation sooner after they launch, expanding the $2,000 out-of-pocket prescription drug cost cap beyond Medicare and into the commercial market, and other steps to build on the Inflation Reduction Act drug provisions.