Harmony, New Hampshire – President Biden will tout his administration’s progress in bringing down remedy prices throughout a go to to New Hampshire Tuesday alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, because the president seeks to cement his coverage legacy.
Mr. Biden is scheduled to talk at Harmony Group Faculty, the place he’ll spotlight a brand new report by the Division of Well being and Human Providers that discovered almost 1.5 million Medicare enrollees saved almost $1 billion on pharmaceuticals within the first half of 2024.
The financial savings are a results of the cap on out-of-pocket drug prices put in place by the Inflation Discount Act, a signature piece of laws the president signed into legislation in 2022. The legislation capped out-of-pocket drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries at $3,500 per 12 months, and subsequent 12 months the cap will go right down to $2,000 per 12 months.
“Congress has talked rather a lot about this, however simply by no means received a lot performed. And partly it needed to do with the truth that Pharma is such a giant lobbyist,” Leighton Ku, a professor within the division of well being coverage and administration at George Washington College, mentioned in an interview with CBS Information. “So the truth that the Biden administration may work with Congress to get even these marginal issues performed is spectacular.”
The Biden administration had beforehand negotiated costs for 10 broadly used pharmaceuticals after a back-and-forth between Medicare and drug producers, and capped insulin at $35 per thirty days for a lot of sufferers.
On Monday, the White Home additionally proposed a plan that, if implement, would require non-public insurers to cowl over-the-counter contraception strategies without charge to sufferers.
In a press release launched forward of Tuesday’s occasion, Sanders praised the administration’s efforts to decrease drug costs. “For the primary time in historical past, Medicare is negotiating to decrease the costs of a few of the costliest pharmaceuticals in America,” the Vermont senator mentioned. “However, let’s be clear. Far more must be performed. In my opinion, no one in America must be paying extra for pharmaceuticals than they do in Europe or Canada.”
Mr. Biden can also be anticipated to make a cease at a marketing campaign workplace whereas within the Granite State.
