Medicare Prescription Drug Provisions of Inflation Reduction Act
The reconciliation bill passed by Congress includes several provisions affecting prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries. Democrats and Republicans offer opposing views on how the legislation will affect seniors. We’ll explain what the bill would do.
“We are making the cost of prescription drugs a lot lower,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told NPR on Aug. 8, the day after Democrats narrowly passed the bill with a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Kamala Harris. A day before the vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized drug price negotiation aspects of the bill, saying: “Their policy would bring about a world where many fewer new drugs and treatments get invented in the first place, as companies cut back on R&D.”
The reconciliation bill, which passed Aug. 12 in the House and now goes to President Joe Biden, would lower at least some Medicare beneficiaries’ prescription costs on Part D, Medicare’s prescription drug program, and on Part B, which covers drugs administered in a doctor’s office, by:
- Requiring the federal government to negotiate prices for some Medicare drugs, 10 medications to start
