Harris proposes expanding prescription drug price caps in populist bid for presidency thumbnail

Harris proposes expanding prescription drug price caps in populist bid for presidency

Vice President Kamala Harris is set to announce on Friday plans to cap the price of insulin and impose limits on household spending on prescription drugs, populist measures that would go beyond the policies implemented by President Joe Biden and are aimed at shoring up middle-class support in the election.

Harris’s campaign said Friday that she would expand the Inflation Reduction Act’s $35 cap on insulin prices to the entire country. Currently, the cap applies only to beneficiaries of Medicare, the government program for seniors and people with disabilities.

She also plans to mandate that all health insurance plans require a $2,000 out-of-pocket maximum for prescription drugs, a provision that is supposed to take effect under the IRA for Medicare beneficiaries in 2025.

Harris’s plan to impose lower prices for all people rather than just Medicare patients will likely require an additional act from Congress. When the IRA was passed in 2022, Harris was the tiebreaking vote in the Senate, and no Republicans in either chamber voted for the legislation.

The effects on the budget for expanding the cap on insulin and out-of-pocket prescription costs are also largely unknown.

The $2,000 out-of-pocket prescription cap for Medicare beneficiaries was estimated to increase federal spending by $30 billion between 2022 and 2031, according to the nonprofit healthcare think tank KFF. The insulin cap was estimated to cost approximately $5.1 billion during the same period.

Harris joined President Joe Biden at a rally on Thursday celebrating the two-year anniversary of the IRA. Biden said that expanding the cap on the price of insulin beyond Medicare beneficiaries will be a priority for the remainder of his administration.

“The next three months we got here — I’m not leaving here — and Kamala, when she’s president, is going to make sure we get it done. Everybody should qualify for that $35. Every American. I mean it,” Biden said in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Harris also announced on Friday that her administration intends to accelerate the speed of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, which allows the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for the price of prescriptions. 

The first round of negotiated maximum fair prices for the 10 most expensive drugs to the Medicare program, announced by CMS this week, will take effect in 2026. 

The first two rounds of negotiations only apply to Medicare Part D drugs, or those that are administered at home by patients themselves. Up to 20 drugs, including Medicare Part B prescriptions, or those administered in hospital settings such as chemotherapy, will be up for negotiations, with prices to take effect in 2028.

“Building on the Biden-Harris administration’s work to allow Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs and cut the cost of some of the most expensive and most commonly used drugs by nearly 40% to 80% starting in 2026, Vice President Harris will allow Medicare to accelerate the speed of negotiations so the prices of more drugs come down faster,” Friday’s announcement from the Harris-Walz campaign noted. 

The measure seems to follow another of the expansions teased by Biden in recent weeks.

Biden, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), in July wrote an opinion piece calling for pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices of their products voluntarily. The piece also alluded to legislation in the works to increase the number of drugs up for price negotiations each year from 20 to 50.

Friday’s announcement is the first concrete declaration of Harris’s healthcare policies since starting her campaign for president last month following Biden’s move no longer to seek reelection. 

During her bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination, Harris initially supported Sanders’s “Medicare for All” plan, which would have eliminated any role for private insurance. 

She subsequently during the campaign drafted her own version of Medicare for All that allowed some room for a heavily regulated private insurance market, which was criticized by both sides of the aisle as a flip-flop.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Although the legislative path forward on expanding these Biden-era policies to private plans is unclear, there may be bipartisan support for some of the measures included in Harris’s plan. 

Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, for example, supported the idea of Medicare being able to negotiate directly the price of prescriptions during his 2022 Senate campaign for Ohio.

2024-08-16 15:18:00, http://s.wordpress.com/mshots/v1/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonexaminer.com%2Fpolicy%2Fhealthcare%2F3123925%2Fharris-proposes-expanding-prescription-drug-price-caps-populist-bid-presidency%2F?w=600&h=450, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to announce on Friday plans to cap the price of insulin and impose limits on household spending on prescription drugs, populist measures that would go beyond the policies implemented by President Joe Biden and are aimed at shoring up middle-class support in the election. Harris’s campaign said Friday that,

Vice President Kamala Harris is set to announce on Friday plans to cap the price of insulin and impose limits on household spending on prescription drugs, populist measures that would go beyond the policies implemented by President Joe Biden and are aimed at shoring up middle-class support in the election.

Harris’s campaign said Friday that she would expand the Inflation Reduction Act’s $35 cap on insulin prices to the entire country. Currently, the cap applies only to beneficiaries of Medicare, the government program for seniors and people with disabilities.

She also plans to mandate that all health insurance plans require a $2,000 out-of-pocket maximum for prescription drugs, a provision that is supposed to take effect under the IRA for Medicare beneficiaries in 2025.

Harris’s plan to impose lower prices for all people rather than just Medicare patients will likely require an additional act from Congress. When the IRA was passed in 2022, Harris was the tiebreaking vote in the Senate, and no Republicans in either chamber voted for the legislation.

The effects on the budget for expanding the cap on insulin and out-of-pocket prescription costs are also largely unknown.

The $2,000 out-of-pocket prescription cap for Medicare beneficiaries was estimated to increase federal spending by $30 billion between 2022 and 2031, according to the nonprofit healthcare think tank KFF. The insulin cap was estimated to cost approximately $5.1 billion during the same period.

Harris joined President Joe Biden at a rally on Thursday celebrating the two-year anniversary of the IRA. Biden said that expanding the cap on the price of insulin beyond Medicare beneficiaries will be a priority for the remainder of his administration.

“The next three months we got here — I’m not leaving here — and Kamala, when she’s president, is going to make sure we get it done. Everybody should qualify for that $35. Every American. I mean it,” Biden said in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Harris also announced on Friday that her administration intends to accelerate the speed of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, which allows the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for the price of prescriptions. 

The first round of negotiated maximum fair prices for the 10 most expensive drugs to the Medicare program, announced by CMS this week, will take effect in 2026. 

The first two rounds of negotiations only apply to Medicare Part D drugs, or those that are administered at home by patients themselves. Up to 20 drugs, including Medicare Part B prescriptions, or those administered in hospital settings such as chemotherapy, will be up for negotiations, with prices to take effect in 2028.

“Building on the Biden-Harris administration’s work to allow Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs and cut the cost of some of the most expensive and most commonly used drugs by nearly 40% to 80% starting in 2026, Vice President Harris will allow Medicare to accelerate the speed of negotiations so the prices of more drugs come down faster,” Friday’s announcement from the Harris-Walz campaign noted. 

The measure seems to follow another of the expansions teased by Biden in recent weeks.

Biden, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), in July wrote an opinion piece calling for pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices of their products voluntarily. The piece also alluded to legislation in the works to increase the number of drugs up for price negotiations each year from 20 to 50.

Friday’s announcement is the first concrete declaration of Harris’s healthcare policies since starting her campaign for president last month following Biden’s move no longer to seek reelection. 

During her bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination, Harris initially supported Sanders’s “Medicare for All” plan, which would have eliminated any role for private insurance. 

She subsequently during the campaign drafted her own version of Medicare for All that allowed some room for a heavily regulated private insurance market, which was criticized by both sides of the aisle as a flip-flop.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Although the legislative path forward on expanding these Biden-era policies to private plans is unclear, there may be bipartisan support for some of the measures included in Harris’s plan. 

Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, for example, supported the idea of Medicare being able to negotiate directly the price of prescriptions during his 2022 Senate campaign for Ohio.

, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to announce on Friday plans to cap the price of insulin and impose limits on household spending on prescription drugs, populist measures that would go beyond the policies implemented by President Joe Biden and are aimed at shoring up middle-class support in the election. Harris’s campaign said Friday that she would expand the Inflation Reduction Act’s $35 cap on insulin prices to the entire country. Currently, the cap applies only to beneficiaries of Medicare, the government program for seniors and people with disabilities. She also plans to mandate that all health insurance plans require a $2,000 out-of-pocket maximum for prescription drugs, a provision that is supposed to take effect under the IRA for Medicare beneficiaries in 2025. Harris’s plan to impose lower prices for all people rather than just Medicare patients will likely require an additional act from Congress. When the IRA was passed in 2022, Harris was the tiebreaking vote in the Senate, and no Republicans in either chamber voted for the legislation. The effects on the budget for expanding the cap on insulin and out-of-pocket prescription costs are also largely unknown. The $2,000 out-of-pocket prescription cap for Medicare beneficiaries was estimated to increase federal spending by $30 billion between 2022 and 2031, according to the nonprofit healthcare think tank KFF. The insulin cap was estimated to cost approximately $5.1 billion during the same period. Harris joined President Joe Biden at a rally on Thursday celebrating the two-year anniversary of the IRA. Biden said that expanding the cap on the price of insulin beyond Medicare beneficiaries will be a priority for the remainder of his administration. “The next three months we got here — I’m not leaving here — and Kamala, when she’s president, is going to make sure we get it done. Everybody should qualify for that $35. Every American. I mean it,” Biden said in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Harris also announced on Friday that her administration intends to accelerate the speed of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, which allows the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for the price of prescriptions.  The first round of negotiated maximum fair prices for the 10 most expensive drugs to the Medicare program, announced by CMS this week, will take effect in 2026.  The first two rounds of negotiations only apply to Medicare Part D drugs, or those that are administered at home by patients themselves. Up to 20 drugs, including Medicare Part B prescriptions, or those administered in hospital settings such as chemotherapy, will be up for negotiations, with prices to take effect in 2028. “Building on the Biden-Harris administration’s work to allow Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs and cut the cost of some of the most expensive and most commonly used drugs by nearly 40% to 80% starting in 2026, Vice President Harris will allow Medicare to accelerate the speed of negotiations so the prices of more drugs come down faster,” Friday’s announcement from the Harris-Walz campaign noted.  The measure seems to follow another of the expansions teased by Biden in recent weeks. Biden, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), in July wrote an opinion piece calling for pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices of their products voluntarily. The piece also alluded to legislation in the works to increase the number of drugs up for price negotiations each year from 20 to 50. Friday’s announcement is the first concrete declaration of Harris’s healthcare policies since starting her campaign for president last month following Biden’s move no longer to seek reelection.  During her bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination, Harris initially supported Sanders’s “Medicare for All” plan, which would have eliminated any role for private insurance.  She subsequently during the campaign drafted her own version of Medicare for All that allowed some room for a heavily regulated private insurance market, which was criticized by both sides of the aisle as a flip-flop. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Although the legislative path forward on expanding these Biden-era policies to private plans is unclear, there may be bipartisan support for some of the measures included in Harris’s plan.  Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, for example, supported the idea of Medicare being able to negotiate directly the price of prescriptions during his 2022 Senate campaign for Ohio., , Harris proposes expanding prescription drug price caps in populist bid for presidency, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/AP24228665372944.webp, Washington Examiner, Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/cropped-favicon-32×32.png, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/feed/, Gabrielle M. Etzel,

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