Medicare negotiates drug prices, announces billions in cost cuts | National News
For the first time, Medicare has negotiated prices for popular drugs.
According to an official list from the White House, we now know the new prices.
President Biden celebrated the news during a rally with Vice President Harris in Maryland.
“This time we’ve finally beaten big pharma,” Biden said. “We pay more for prescription drugs – and this is no exaggeration – we pay more for prescription drugs than any other advanced country in the world.”
The first ten drugs were selected based on several conditions set out in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Cost savings range from 79 percent for the diabetes drug Januvia to 38 percent for the blood cancer drug Imbruvica. Insulin is capped at $35 per month.
Medicare provides health insurance to over 65 million people.
“Medicare was prohibited by law from negotiating lower drug prices and those costs were passed on to our seniors. But that is now over,” Harris said.
The Department of Health and Human Services says if these prices had been in effect in 2023, Medicare would have saved $6 billion and beneficiaries $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs.
Retired nurse Judy Aiken, who relies on the psoriasis drug Enbrel, also spoke at the rally. “In the last year alone, I paid over $9,000 out of pocket just to afford this one medication,” Aiken said.
If a drug manufacturer refused to negotiate, it faced a tax penalty, but this could be waived if the drug manufacturer decided to remove the drug from the Medicare program.
Some pharmaceutical companies described the negotiations as “unconstitutional.”
The new drug prices will not come into effect until 2026. Here is the full list of the 10 drugs with their old and new prices:
- Eliquis – $521 to $231
- Xarelto – $517 to $197
- Januvia – $527 to $113
- Jardiance – $573 to $197
- Enbrel – $7,106 to $2,355
- Imbruvica – $14,934 to $9,319
- Farxiga – $556 to $178
- Entresto – $628 to $295
- Stelara – $13,836 to $4,695
- Fiasp and NovoLog – $495 to $119
For further information, please visit the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs website.
