Nobody can say anything about Joe Biden except how old he is. Nothing else is relevant apparently. Except that his age is actually irrelevant, particularly when you look at what he’s done. Any progressive should be proud of accomplishments like this:
The Biden administration Tuesday identified 10 expensive prescription drugs that have been chosen for price negotiations with pharmaceutical manufacturers as the government seeks to ease the financial burden on older and disabled Americans. The announcement marks an unprecedented step in a long political war over the nation’s exorbitant drug costs even as the pharmaceutical industry is still trying to block the plan.
Half of the drugs chosen first for price negotiations are medications to prevent blood clots and treat diabetes and were taken by millions of people on Medicare in the past year, according to a list released by federal health officials who oversee Medicare, the vast public health insurance system. Others are used to treat heart trouble, autoimmune disease and cancer. Consumers will not see benefits swiftly; the lower, negotiated prices are due to become available in early 2026.
The three highest-cost drugs on the widely anticipated list of 10 are Eliquis, a blood thinner; Jardiance, which treats diabetes and heart failure; and Xarelto, another blood thinner. They cost Medicare $16 billion, $7 billion and $6 billion, respectively, in the past year.
Medications could be targeted for price negotiation if they are available under Medicare drug benefits, lack certain competition to push down their prices and have been sold for at least several years to give drugmakers time to help recoup the expense of developing them.
Tuesday’s step toward reducing Medicare drug prices was a significant element in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, a law that President Biden and his aides herald as a policy victory, even though the number of medications and the timing of the first price reductions are less ambitious than some Democrats had sought for many years. And the fate of the entire negotiation plan rests with the courts because six drug manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce and the pharmaceutical industry’s main trade group have lodged separate lawsuits around the country trying to obstruct it.
Still, the Biden administration, Democratic allies in Congress and consumer health-care advocates portrayed this initial list of 10 drugs as a milestone to shore up the financial stability of the Medicare system and ease the burden on its beneficiaries. Medicare is a federal insurance system for people who are at least 65, along with younger adults who have disabilities. When last year’s law passed, the Congressional Budget Office predicted the negotiations would save the program slightly more than $100 billion during the following decade.
“There is no reason why Americans should be forced to pay more than any developed nation for life-saving prescriptions just to pad Big Pharma’s pockets,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House, reflecting his intention to use the issue as a feature of his campaign for reelection.
The list also hands congressional Democrats a political opportunity ahead of the 2024 election to argue they are focused on pocketbook issues that can help millions of Americans. House members and senators lauded the release of the list. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (N.J.), the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, pointedly blamed Republicans for the high cost of prescription drugs, saying in a statement that Tuesday’s announcement “marks the end of a 20-year handout from Republicans in Congress to the pharmaceutical industry.”
Advocates for America’s patients and older Americans also praised the step forward in price negotiations. “We can’t allow seniors to be Big Pharma’s cash machine anymore,” said Nancy LeaMond, executive vice president for AARP, the large lobbying group for people 50 and older.
More than 60 percent of the 65 million people on Medicare take prescription medication, and 25 percent take at least four prescriptions, according to a survey this summer by KFF, a health-care policy organization.
The rest of the list consists of Januvia, Farxiga and NovoLog, which treat diabetes among other conditions; Enbrel and Stelara, for arthritis and psoriasis; and Entresto, for heart failure; and Imbruvica, for cancers of the blood.
Wall Street analysts widely expected that many of the 10 drugs selected for price negotiations would appear on the list, based on Medicare expenditures and their sales in the United States, among other criteria. For seniors enrolled in Medicare, their average, annual out-of-pocket costs ranged from $121 for diabetes drug NovoLog to $5,247 for cancer-drug Imbruvica, including those with financial assistance. All told, HHS estimates that about 9 million seniors enrolled in Medicare’s prescription drug program used one or more of the 10 drugs in 2022, and paid a total of $3.4 billion out of pocket.
For an old guy he seems to be doing a lot of good things. Maybe his age isn’t really the most important thing about him after all?