STORY: The United States has negotiated down the prices of 10 top-selling prescription drugs used by Medicare by as much as 79%, hoping to save $6 billion in the first year as part of a plan hailed on Thursday (August 15) by President Biden with the aim to ease anger about high prices ahead of November elections.
Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in 2022, was the first to allow Medicare to negotiate prices for some of the most costly drugs that the program covers for 66 million people. The new prices will go into effect in 2026.
The new prices represent cuts to individual list prices that do not reflect any rebates and discounts the government may already be getting for the drugs, although the government’s estimated savings from the negotiations do take those discounts into account.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking Senate vote passed the law that allows for the drug-price negotiations, which no Republicans supported. In a statement, she also pointed to her work as California attorney general holding “big pharma accountable for their deceptive and illegal practices.”
Though it was an official event, Biden turned his speech in the gymnasium into a de facto campaign rally, saying Harris would make a “hell of a president” and criticizing Republicans for not supporting Medicare’s right to negotiate drug pricing.
