Sue Dinsdale is the executive director of Iowa Citizen Action Network and leads the Health Care For America and Lower Drug Prices NOW campaigns in Iowa.
The most popular health care program in America turns 59 this year. Over 65 million seniors and people with disabilities depend on Medicare for their health coverage. That number will only increase over the next decade as a record number of people turn 65, qualify for the program, and enroll in a health plan that provides everything from routine prevention to acute care for serious illnesses like cancer.
Prescription drug coverage is a vital part of Medicare coverage: nearly nine in ten (89 percent) of adults 65 and older report they are currently taking any prescription medicine. That is the highest utilization rate of any age group.
More than half of adults 65 and older (54 percent) report taking four or more prescription drugs. And millions of Medicare enrollees who take prescriptions struggle to afford them because of price-gouging by pharmaceutical companies. Leaving corporations in charge of prices has led to nearly one quarter of Medicare enrollees rationing medicine, skipping doses, forgoing other basic needs to afford prescriptions and going without needed medicines because they can’t afford the prices.
Fortunately, recent improvements in Medicare are lowering drug costs for patients. Under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Medicare can finally, for the first time, negotiate lower prices on some of the most used and more expensive medicines in the program.
But that’s not all. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, the cost of insulin will be capped at $35 a month for seniors. Out of pocket cost of other medicines at the pharmacy will be capped for the first time as well. All recommended vaccines will now be free, and prescription drug corporations that raise their prices faster than inflation will have to pay a rebate back to Medicare for the amount they overcharged.
Research shows that 3.4 million people with Medicare would have saved $234 million in out-of-pocket costs in 2021 on vaccines—or about $70 per person—if the Inflation Reduction Act had been in place in 2021. Diabetics in Medicare who use insulin would have saved about $500 a year on insulin last year if the law had been in place. An estimated 18,834 Iowans would have saved an average of $728 under the law’s $35 a month insulin cap.
Medicare recipients have these savings and much more to look forward to as the law is implemented piece by piece between now and 2026.
But everything could change and all this progress could be rolled back pending the outcome of the November elections.
Despite the tremendous popularity of these reforms and the billions of dollars that price negotiations will save patients and taxpayers, too many politicians are committed to repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and turning back the clock.
A new blueprint from Republican policymakers recommends repealing the law and all the reforms that lower drug prices. Some members of Congress have already filed legislation to do so, putting the profits and interests of big drug corporations ahead of their own constituents. Given that every Republican, including Iowa’s entire Congressional delegation, voted against the new drug reform law in 2022, there’s good reason to worry that if Republicans gain full control of Congress and the presidency in these elections, they will follow through with their plans.
The future of affordable medicines depends on voters. Not only must we fully implement the Inflation Reduction Act, but we must build on it—as President Joe Biden has many times suggested—by extending lower prices to people of all ages. The president has proposed expanding price negotiations to all drugs in Medicare, extending the lower prices to commercial insurance so that people under 65 can also save on medicines, and holding drug corporations accountable for raising prices faster than inflation in private insurance, just like we are doing in Medicare.
Much more progress on lowering drug prices is possible. But first, voters must take a stand at the polls to vote to preserve the positive improvements in Medicare. If they don’t, next year we may have much less to celebrate as the program turns 60.