The Inflation Reduction Act’s broken promise is still costing patients
THE HILL
When President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, his administration promised it would make prescription drugs more affordable and accessible for seniors.
Yet the results tell a different story.
A recent analysis found that nearly one in four initial attempts by patients to fill a prescription for one of the first drugs selected for Medicare’s drug price negotiation program was rejected. Patients relying on immunology and oncology treatments felt this even more intensely, with rejection rates climbing as high as 59 percent and 67 percent, respectively.
The lesson from the Inflation Reduction Act and other countries around the world is simple: Government drug price controls do not improve patient access. In many cases, price controls create incentives to ration care and empower government bureaucrats at the expense of patients and the development of new therapies.
That dynamic is playing out across Medicare Part D, which has undergone a significant overhaul over the past several years.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Inflation Reduction Act increased taxpayer costs while also jacking up premiums for consumers and out-of-pocket costs for many patients. While the law caps seniors’ annual out-of-pocket costs at $2,100 this year, other dynamics are shifting fixed dollar co-payments per prescription to percentage-based fees tied to the cost of the drug. Because most seniors have drug costs less than $2,000, many are paying more out of pocket.
The law also required new mandatory manufacturer discounts, shifted billions of dollars in financial responsibility from Medicare to private Part D plans, and completely redesigned how prescription drug benefits are provided. This tripled the financial risk borne by plans, which are now raising premiums on consumers or exiting the market entirely.
Rather than fixing the problem, the Biden administration launched a temporary Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration, spending billions of taxpayer dollars to help some of the country’s largest health insurers keep premiums artificially low. This did not address the structural flaws created by the Inflation Reduction Act; it simply delayed them.
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