Washington, D.C. — The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act’s provision for drug price negotiation will help millions of older adults and improve health equity. A new Center for American Progress column analyzes how various populations can expect to benefit from lower medication costs that older adults and disabled people depend on every day.
Medicare drug price negotiation will have substantial cost savings for Black, Latino, female, LGBTQI+, and disabled individuals. The new CAP column looks at how even small reductions in drug prices have significant impacts on access and affordability. In fact, as this new column discusses, Black non-Latino older adults are twice as likely as white non-Latino older adults to not fill a prescription due to the cost, and Latino adults age 65 or older are 1.6 times more likely than white non-Latino older adults to report affordability issues for prescription drugs. Women, who make up more than half of Medicare beneficiaries, are often saddled with higher out-of-pocket costs despite having lower savings than men.
Medicare drug price negotiation will help alleviate this financial stress and help all enrolled older adults get the medication they need for conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and certain cancers.
“Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, older Americans are soon going to see relief in the price of prescriptions. As we wait for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to announce the first round of drugs for price negotiation, it’s abundantly clear that lowering the costs of these medications will help more seniors keep cash in their pockets,” said Nicole Rapfogel, a policy analyst for Health at CAP and co-author of this column.
Read the column: “Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Will Help Millions of Seniors and Improve Health Equity” by Gillian Tisdale and Nicole Rapfogel
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Sarah Nadeau at [email protected].