Federal officials have reached deals with drug companies to lower the price for 10 of Medicare’s most popular and costliest drugs.

The discounts, agreed to after months of negotiations with drug manufacturers, range between 38% and 79% on the medication’s list price, which is the cost of medication before discounts or rebates are applied — not the price people actually pay for prescriptions.

Medicare spent $50 billion covering the drugs last year and taxpayers are expected to save $6 billion on the new prices, which do not go into effect until 2026. Older adults could save as much as $1.5 billion in total on their medications in out-of-pocket costs. Administration officials released few details about how they arrived at those calculations.

The newly negotiated prices will impact the price of drugs used by millions of older Americans to help manage diabetes, blood cancers and prevent heart failure or blood clots. The drugs include the blood thinners Xarelto and Eliquis and diabetes drugs Jardiance and Januvia.

  • LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org
    6·
    3 months ago

    Not just that, imagine an additional billion and change circulating in local economies instead of that amount being siphoned out annually. It’s insane that they passed a law preventing this from happening for twenty years and we’re seeing this benefit because it expired

    • Midnitte@beehaw.orgEnglish
      8·
      3 months ago

      Small clarification, but we’re seeing it because democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which I will note that not a single republican voted for.

      Prescription drug price reform to lower prices, including Medicare negotiation of drug prices for certain drugs (starting at 10 new ones per year by 2026, increasing to more than 20 additional ones per year[38] by 2029)[39][40] and rebates from drug makers who price gouge – $281 billion[7][39][40]

      • LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org
        3·
        3 months ago

        Yes, that is the act that empowered Medicare to begin negotiating prices but the Medicare Modernization Act, passed in 2003, barred it from negotiating prices for twenty years. The MMA expired last year, lifting the ban.

        I am incorrect, see @Midnitte’s comment below

        • Midnitte@beehaw.orgEnglish
          5·
          3 months ago

          The MMA didn’t expire, it was overwritten by the Inflation act:

          The Medicare Prescription Drug Act expressly prohibited Medicare from negotiating bulk prescription drug prices.[21] The “donut hole” provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 was an attempt to correct the issue.[22] In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act removed this ban and allowed Medicare to begin negotiating drug prices starting in 2026.[23] - Source