{"id":2547,"date":"2024-03-28T06:14:53","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T06:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=2547"},"modified":"2024-03-28T06:14:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T06:14:54","slug":"biden-said-medicare-drug-price-negotiations-cut-the-deficit-by-160b-thats-years-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=2547","title":{"rendered":"Biden Said Medicare Drug Price Negotiations Cut the Deficit by $160B. That’s Years Away."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\tAmy Sherman, PolitiFact<\/span><\/p>\n

We cut the federal deficit by $160 billion because Medicare will no longer have to pay those exorbitant prices to Big Pharma.<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address, March 7, 2024<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden has been making his case for reelection to voters by telling them he is good for their pocketbooks, including at the pharmacy counter.<\/p>\n

During his\u00a0State of the Union address<\/a>, Biden said legislation he signed gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not just saving seniors money and taxpayers money,\u201d\u00a0Biden said<\/a>, a reference to the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in 2022. \u201cWe cut the federal deficit by $160 billion because Medicare will no longer have to pay those exorbitant prices to Big Pharma.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Biden added, \u201cThis year, Medicare is negotiating lower prices for some of the costliest drugs.\u201d He called for giving Medicare the power to negotiate prices for 500 drugs over the next decade.<\/p>\n

In August<\/a>, the federal government announced the first 10 drugs that it will negotiate for lower prices as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. A respected source of legislation analysis projects the change will save the government a lot of money, but those dollars haven\u2019t been realized.<\/p>\n

There is a reason Biden touted this legislation during his address:\u00a0Polling by KFF<\/a>\u00a0shows that people, regardless of their political leanings, overwhelmingly support the idea of allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. But most people don\u2019t know that such negotiations are underway.<\/p>\n

Impact of Inflation Reduction Act Will Take Many Years<\/strong><\/p>\n

In August 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which will allow the federal government to negotiate prices with drugmakers for Medicare. Biden\u00a0kept his promise<\/a>\u00a0to repeal the law that barred Medicare from negotiating prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects<\/a>\u00a0a 10-year cumulative savings of $161.7 billion from two provisions of the Iaw: a phased-in effort to negotiate with drugmakers for lower prices and a rebate for price increases above the overall inflation rate. (The\u00a0White House<\/a>\u00a0has previously pointed to this analysis.)<\/p>\n

However, not all the savings will be permanent. About $44.3 billion over 10 years will be funneled into related provisions that expand access and lower out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cNegotiations are still ramping up, so the savings generated by the Inflation Reduction Act negotiation provisions are still in the future,\u201d said Matthew Fiedler, a Brookings Institution expert on the economy and health studies. \u201cThe Congressional Budget Office did expect the inflation rebate provisions of the IRA (which are encompassed in the $160 billion) to begin generating modest savings during 2023 and 2024, but there, too, most of the savings are in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislation involves price negotiations for\u00a010 brand-name medications<\/a>\u00a0that lack generic equivalents. Those drugs\u00a0include<\/a>\u00a0the blood thinners Eliquis and Xarelto; the diabetes drugs Januvia, Jardiance, and NovoLog; Enbrel, for rheumatoid arthritis; the blood-cancer drug Imbruvica; Entresto, for heart failure; Stelara, for psoriasis and Crohn\u2019s disease; and Farxiga, a drug for diabetes, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0CBO has estimated<\/a>\u00a0that the negotiated prices will translate to nearly $100 billion in federal savings from 2026 to 2031.<\/p>\n

\u201cBiden is jumping the gun on claiming savings for seniors,\u201d said Joe Antos, an expert on health care at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. \u201cPrice negotiations haven\u2019t been completed; the new prices for selected drugs aren\u2019t in place until 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden said the legislation is \u201csaving seniors money and taxpayers money,\u201d which could be interpreted to mean it is saving them money now on prescription drugs. But the negotiations for these drugs would define the prices to be paid for prescriptions starting in 2026. For 2027 and 2028, 15 more drugs per year will be chosen for price negotiations. Starting in 2029, 20 more will be chosen a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, other provisions in the legislation have already led to savings for seniors, said Tricia Neuman, a senior vice president at KFF:<\/p>\n