‘War on Seniors’: Democrats to Cut Seniors’ Prescription Drug Benefits Ahead of MidtermsSean Moran 9 Aug 2022
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act would mean that Democrats would cut seniors’ Medicare prescription drug benefits ahead of the midterms.
The Senate passed the Democrats’ $700 billion Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday, setting up a vote later this week for the House to pass the bill and make the deal law.
However, the legislation contains stringent leftist price controls that would drastically alter seniors’ benefits.
The Inflation Reduction Act would redesign Medicare Part D, a federal program administrated through private insurance companies to offer retail prescription drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries. Before Medicare Part D, tens of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries had little help with retail drug costs.
However, in the Democrats’ aim to reduce prescription drug prices, they slipped price controls into the Medicare Part D section of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The legislation would alter Medicare Part D by:
Capping the cost of Part D prescription drugs by creating a $2,000 ceiling for annual out-of-pocket costs
Lowers beneficiary coinsurance and would increase plan and manufacturer liability by 2025
Premium growth is capped at six percent per year
Expanding the income threshold for the program’s low-income subsidy to 150 from 135 percent of the federal poverty level
Requiring Part D plans to spread out out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries over the plan year
All in all, the Democrats’ Medicare Part D redesign could likely lead to a reduction in supplemental benefits for Medicare Part D recipients, or American seniors.
Democrats took a significant hit on Saturday, when the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled that the Inflation Reduction Act’s provision to force pharmaceutical companies to give rebates for their products sold to private insurers exceeded inflation and violated the Senate rules on reconciliation. This would have acted as a cushion to the Medicare Part D redesign under the Inflation Reduction Act.
This could lead to patients with private insurance paying higher costs for prescription medications by “disincentivizing” pharmaceuticals from keeping prices lower.
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/08/09/war-seniors-democrats-cut-seniors-prescription-drug-benefits-ahead-midterms/
