How the Inflation Reduction Act Could Impact Your Prescription Drug Costs

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Forty-eight million Americans use Medicare Part D to access their prescription medications, and according to a Department of Health and Human Services study from January of this year, more than 5 million Medicare beneficiaries are struggling to afford those prescriptions. But if enacted, the Inflation Reduction Act could soon bring those prices down. The legislation would give the federal government more bargaining power in Medicare negotiations with pharmaceutical companies and cap out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs for covered Medicare recipients beginning in 2025. We’ll talk about the bill and how it could impact your prescription drug costs. Guests: Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the Program on Medicare Policy, KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). Astrid Galván, editor, Axios Latino. David Mitchell, founder, Patients For Affordable Drugs, Patients For Affordable Drugs NOW - diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2010. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:31.8	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Ariana Prail in Fermina Kim. Coming up on forum, 48 million Americans use Medicare Part D to access their prescription medications. And according to a Department of Health
1:37.2	and Human Services study from January of this year, more than 5 million Medicare beneficiaries
1:42.1	are struggling to afford those prescriptions.
1:45.0	Americans are already paying much more than other countries' residents for their prescription drugs.
1:49.0	The Inflation Reduction Act is poised to address some of the prescription drug affordability challenges that Medicare recipients face.
1:56.0	We'll talk about how and answer your questions.
2:20.4	This is Forum. I'm Ariana Preil in Fermina Kim. The average price for brand name prescription drugs more than doubled between 2009 and 2018 for Medicare patients. That's according to the Congressional
2:26.4	Budget Office. And according to the Kaiser Family Foundation between 2019 and 2020, price increases
2:32.2	outpaced inflation for half of the drugs that Medicare covers.
2:35.9	So the Inflation Reduction Act's plans for Medicare prescription drug pricing is being touted as a pretty big deal,
	...

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