Drug price cuts begin

The Biden Administration announced the reduced prices of the first 10 drugs it has negotiated with pharmaceutical companies over their Medicare prices last week. Provisions authorizing these negotiations were part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which took effect in 2022, but these lower prices aren’t scheduled to take effect until 2026.

The drugs are purchased through Medicare Part D, a prescription drug coverage program for Americans who are 65 and older. The 10 medications were used by 9 million patients with Medicare coverage in 2023, and they accounted for $56.2 billion in total Medicare spending. Had the negotiated prices been in place that year, the government estimates that Medicare would have saved about $6 billion.

Dana Marie Kennedy, State Director of AARP Arizona, joined Arizona Horizon to discuss what this means and what’s to come.