Medicare enrollees who take expensive medicines could save thousands of dollars a year under the Democrats’ sweeping social agenda bill, but those dividends won't come overnight. Instead, they'll build gradually over the decade.
Prescription pills are shown Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021 in Washington. Medicare enrollees who take expensive medicines could save thousands of dollars a year under the Democrats’ sweeping social agenda bill, but those benefits would build gradually, starting in a couple of years with a check on price increases and limits on insulin costs. A cap on out-of-pocket costs would follow in 2024, and a year later patients will begin to see lower prices negotiated by Medicare.
The first tangible benefits would take about a year to show up. In 2023, the bill would impose a check on annual price increases for established drugs, as well as cost limits meant to keep insulin affordable. A huge development would follow in 2024: the first-ever cap on out-of-pocket costs for nearly 50 million seniors in Medicare's Part D pharmacy drug program.
For Medicare recipients whose cost-sharing is based on a percentage of a drug's price, what they pay out-of-pocket would not rise faster than inflation. Among them is David Mitchell, president of the advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs. Battling multiple myeloma, Mitchell says one of his cancer drugs alone costs him $15,000 a year through Medicare. “If you happen to be in that group —like me— this is a big deal,” said Mitchell.
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