The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare is one of the most effective and trustworthy sources for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid advocacy. Since 1982, we have been working for generations of older Americans who want our nation’s health and income security programs secured for the future. Join us and learn more about how you can be a part of our intergenerational crusade.
In addition to news, you'll find plenty of posts about donuts, NASA/space, and coffee.
The President has tapped a former Big Pharma executive, Alex Azar. This is an ironic choice for a President who has pledged to lower prescription drug prices.
As President of Eli Lilly, Azar presided over frequent price hikes on medications that seniors on fixed incomes depend upon.
The Trump administration proposed on Monday to cut costs for Medicare by reducing the number of prescription drugs that must be made available to people with cancer, AIDS, depression, schizophrenia and certain other conditions.
Under the proposal, health insurance plans that provide drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries would no longer have to cover all of the drugs in six “protected classes.”
At a time when policymakers are seeking ways to lower the federal deficit and overall health care spending, proposals that reduce Medicare prescription drug costs cannot be overlooked.
In this year’s presidential campaign, health care has taken a back seat.
But one issue appears to be breaking through: the rising cost of
prescription drugs.
Makers of brand-name drugs called out by the Trump administration for potentially stalling generic competition have hiked their prices by double-digit percentages since 2012 and cost Medicare and Medicaid nearly $12 billion in 2016, a Kaiser Health News analysis has found.
As part of President Donald Trump’s promise to curb high drug prices, the Food and Drug Administration posted a list of pharmaceutical companies that makers of generics allege refused to let them buy the drug samples needed to develop their products. For approval, the FDA requires so-called bioequivalence testing using samples to demonstrate that generics are the same as their branded counterparts.
The analysis shows that drug companies that may have engaged in what FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called “shenanigans” to delay the entrance of cheaper competitors onto the market have indeed raised prices and cost taxpayers more money over time.
Trump’s new proposal will ring hollow with America’s seniors, who understand the only way they will see the prices they pay at the pharmacy come down is for the president and Congress to break the choke-hold that Big Pharma has on our country’s drug pricing policies – and pass legislation that gives Medicare full control over negotiation.
At a time when policymakers are seeking ways to lower the federal deficit and overall health care spending, proposals that reduce Medicare prescription drug costs cannot be overlooked.
President Donald Trump on Friday will unveil a sweeping strategy for lowering drug prices that aims to reshape Medicare, boost competition and pressure foreign governments that the White House believes are “freeloading” off of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, two senior administration officials said Thursday night.
The long-awaited plan represents a mix of existing policies laid out in the Trump administration’s 2019 budget blueprint as well as some new ideas designed to drive down drug prices and lower patients’ out-of-pocket costs.
At a time when policymakers are seeking ways to lower the federal deficit and overall health care spending, proposals that reduce Medicare prescription drug costs cannot be overlooked.
Allowing the federal government to negotiate for lower Medicare drug prices and restoring discounts for low-income beneficiaries make sense because these proposals save money without shifting costs to beneficiaries and have broad public support.
The ACA provides new ways to help hospitals, doctors and other health care providers coordinate care for beneficiaries so that health care quality is improved and unnecessary spending reduced. Improvements made in the ACA to Medicare preventive services and prescription drug coverage have lowered the out-of-pocket costs of millions of seniors.
No out-of-pocket costs for preventive services like colorectal and mammogram screenings and annual wellness visits
50% discount for brand name drugs purchased while in the Part D donut hole, leading to the closure of the donut hole entirely
$700 in covered drug costs for the average senior would be lost and the sickest seniors would face $3,600 in additional out-of-pocket costs
Reduction of billions in overpayments to private insurers in Medicare and a new requirement that 85% of every dollar is spent on healthcare rather than costs/profits
The White House on Tuesday signaled President Donald Trump’s blunt thumbs-down to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Her office’s sharp retort: “Working people won’t like it if he sells them out.”
Despite the House impeachment inquiry, the White House and top aides to the California Democrat have been in regular contact on efforts to curb drug prices, a mutual objective and a top concern for Americans across party lines.
But a senior White House official told The Associated Press that the administration has concluded Pelosi’s plan is “unworkable” and Trump will instead support bipartisan legislation pending in the Senate. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing deliberations.
People are dying — or their quality of life is poor — because high drug prices are forcing seniors to go without life-saving medications. It’s time to end pharma’s drug price gouging. It’s time to stop forcing seniors to cut their pills in half or skip a dose. That’s why the National Committee urges the Senate to approve legislation that would allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices.
Democrats are trying to take back an issue Donald Trump effectively stole from them during the 2016 presidential campaign: the high cost of prescription drugs.
Trump repeatedly railed against pharmaceutical companies during the campaign and after taking office, promising that prices would drop and accusing drug companies of “getting away with murder.” But more than a year into his tenure, Trump has taken only limited action, and drug prices continue to climb.
While Trump this week is again slated to deliver a delayed speech on drug prices, Democrats are pushing proposals they hope will compare favorably to Trump’s and give them the upper hand on an issue polls consistently rank as among voters’ top concerns.
Here’s a riddle about drug pricing to ask our healthcare administrators, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar: Since the prices of generic drugs haven’t risen since 2011—in fact, in many cases have fallen—why have out-of-pocket costs for seniors on Medicare nearly doubled?
That’s the finding in a new analysis by the healthcare consulting firm Avalere Health, which studied the trends in co-pay charges for enrollees in Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit. The benefit is administered by private insurance companies. The insurers have great latitude to establish out-of-pocket co-pays and structure their formularies—the roster of drugs they cover—as long as they meet broad rules set down by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency under HHS.
Trump’s new proposal will ring hollow with America’s seniors, who understand the only way they will see the prices they pay at the pharmacy come down is for the president and Congress to break the choke-hold that Big Pharma has on our country’s drug pricing policies – and pass legislation that gives Medicare full control over negotiation.
At a time when policymakers are seeking ways to lower the federal deficit and overall health care spending, proposals that reduce Medicare prescription drug costs cannot be overlooked.
The ACA provides new ways to help hospitals, doctors and other health care providers coordinate care for beneficiaries so that health care quality is improved and unnecessary spending reduced.
The ACA provides new ways to help hospitals, doctors and other health care providers coordinate care for beneficiaries so that health care quality is improved and unnecessary spending reduced.
