The $3.8 trillion White House budget unveiled Wednesday renews calls for charging wealthy Medicare beneficiaries more for physician and prescription drug coverage. The spending framework also raises costs for people who join Medicare in 2017 and later for some services, and levies a surcharge on beneficiaries who buy comprehensive health insurance plans to supplement their Medicare coverage.
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#budget #politics #medicare #prescription drugsRichtman observed it has taken Congress a long time to acknowledge that the high cost of prescription drugs has hit older American’s hard in their wallets. “Medicare spends billions providing Part D drug coverage each year while beneficiaries including seniors, the disabled and their families also face rising out-of-pocket costs and higher premiums, he says, noting that “All the while, drug makers continue to reap the profits of their price gouging.”
via Herb Weiss.
Seniors Applaud President’s Proposal Allowing Medicare to Negotiate for Lower Rx Drug Prices.
It’s long past time for Congress to acknowledge the hard truth that the sky-rocketing cost of prescription drugs is hurting average Americans and our federal budget. Medicare spends billions providing Part D drug coverage each year while beneficiaries including seniors, the disabled and their families also face rising out-of-pocket costs and higher premiums. All the while, drug makers continue to reap the profits of their price gouging.
Some Medicare beneficiaries would face higher prescription drug costs under President Donald Trump’s budget even as the sickest patients save thousands of dollars, a complex trade-off that may make it harder to sell Congress on the plan in an election year.
In budget documents, the administration said its proposals strike a balance between improving the popular “Part D” prescription benefit for the 42 million seniors enrolled, while correcting design flaws that increase program costs for taxpayers. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is expected to testify on the proposal later this week in Congress.
Trump has made bringing down drug costs a top priority, but his administration’s plan would create winners and losers. The high cost of medicines is the leading health care concern among consumers.
Independent experts said the administration’s plan will help beneficiaries with the highest prescription drug costs, an estimated 1 million of the sickest patients, those whose individual bills reach a total of more than $8,418 apiece.
But about 4.5 million seniors in the group just behind them could end up spending more of their own money. That’s because the budget proposes a change in how Medicare accounts for manufacturer discounts received by patients whose total bills range between $3,750 and $8,418. They could wind up paying about $1,000 more.
via New York Times.
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USA Today has a must-read editorial supporting our position that Medicare should be allowed to negotiate with drug-makers for lower prescription drugs, just as the Veterans Affairs department currently does.
Today, the President released his 2017 budget and it included a provision which would allow Medicare to negotiate Rx drugs.
Read more about the budget here.
On the campaign trail, President Trump made a lot of promises, including the declaration that he would not cut Medicare as president. But that’s exactly what he’s doing with his proposed budget for 2019.
Trump’s plan includes $554 billion in cuts to Medicare, the federal health care program that provides insurance to 55 million Americans who are over age 65 or living with disabilities. The program helps ensure that every American can afford doctor’s appointments, medications, and life-saving treatments after they retire or when they are no longer able to work.
While some of the proposed changes to Medicare would target reimbursements for doctors to ensure they are not charging too much and would pass rebates along to beneficiaries directly, other program savings come from picking winners and losers around changes to the program’s prescription drug coverage.
Those with the highest drug prices — the just over 1 million Americans who reach the cost threshold to qualify for Medicare’s “catastrophic” prescription drug coverage — would pay none of those costs, instead of paying the current 5% copay. But the changes would also make it harder to qualify for that level of coverage and would force those just shy of that threshold — those with prescription drug bills between $3,750 and $8,418 — to pay as much as $1,000 more.
via Market Watch.
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As a candidate for president, he has made the astronomical cost of prescription drugs a central point of his campaign. Now he’s set to introduce a new bill to beef up the government’s ability to keep prices down.
via Think Progress.
Medicare spent $97 billion on prescription drugs in 2014, accounting for more than a quarter of the nation’s spending on prescription medicines. Those numbers are expected to continue rising in coming years, as spending on the Part D benefit accelerates. Policymakers have put a number of proposals on the table to reduce the growth in Medicare drug spending and costs for beneficiaries, including a controversial proposal that would change the way Medicare pays for Part B drugs administered by doctors.
Options for Implementing Medicare Drug Negotiation.
Letter to Senate Finance on High Drug Costs.
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.”
via New York Times.
Related Reading:
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.
On this date in 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the #ADA into law — making it easier for older Americans and others with #disabilities to get around at home, participate in their communities, and go to work. #ADA31
