White House says deals struck to cut prices of popular Medicare drugs that cost $50 billion yearly

[Dulcinea]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Thursday that drug price negotiations will knock hundreds of dollars — in some cases thousands — off the list prices of 10 of Medicare’s most popular and costliest drugs.

The discounts, agreed to after months of negotiations with drug manufacturers, range between 38% and 79% on the medication's list price, which is the cost of medication before discounts or rebates are applied — not the price people actually pay for prescriptions.

Medicare spent $50 billion covering the drugs last year and taxpayers are expected to save $6 billion on the new prices, which do not go into effect until 2026. Older adults could save as much as $1.5 billion in total on their medications in out-of-pocket costs. Administration officials released few details about how they arrived at those calculations.

The newly negotiated prices will impact the price of drugs used by millions of older Americans to help manage diabetes, blood cancers and prevent heart failure or blood clots. The drugs include the blood thinners Xarelto and Eliquis and diabetes drugs Jardiance and Januvia.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/white-house-says-deals-struck-090414809.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&segment_id=DY_VTO&ncid=crm_19908-1202929-20240815-0&bt_user_id=Nbx3fx4G8bY%2BBly%2BSJFnGIbrNwAlLbn0ojgzw6ZoQXY801Dclw5vn3QutIrrLuZf&bt_ts=1723730268258

[Tadpole Raisin]

1. This is great news! I've only heard 1 potential issue which may be nothing or

It may turn into a big deal.

We all know insurance companies always try to maintain their profits and the changes for next year will be in response to the Inflation Reduction Act. I don’t know about Advantage plans but I’ve heard that stand alone Part D plans May have some major changes:

1. Higher (much) drug monthly premiums
2. Restrict the formulary - the allowed drugs in each plan.
3. Change which tier certain drugs are in.

Hopefully Congress will address this but that may not be possible for the upcoming year.
We won’t know these plan changes until October but the belief is there will be some unpleasant surprises. Just make sure if your plan looks the same price wise that if you are on a bunch of meds that they are still included in that plan.

I’ve listened to a lot of the insurance brokers online (I don’t trust most of them) but Christopher Westphall seems on the up and up and he is warning people to look at their plans carefully as these guys are already seeing the proposals but are not allowed to talk specifics until the plans are out. He put a video out a couple of weeks ago but I can’t put it up right now, sorry.

Anybody else hear anything?