The Biden Administration has released the first 10 products covered under their new Medicare price-setting method for prescription drugs, which was established by the Democrats’ alleged “Inflation Reduction Act.” This new system to enforce price controls determined by Washington bureaucrats is an unrealistic, legally questionable plan that will raise the cost of new medications when they are released into the market, impede the search for novel treatments, and eliminate jobs. According to a fact sheet released by U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Missouri), U.S. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington), the move will impede seniors’ access to care and raise costs for them.
“The government price controls included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) risk reversing decades of progress on bringing lifesaving treatments and medical breakthroughs to American patients,” stated Senator Crapo, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. “The partisan law’s broad price-setting programme defies economic realities and has already started to impede the development of new drugs, including treatments for cancer and pharmaceuticals for uncommon diseases. I hope that our colleagues on both sides of the aisle can come together to mitigate these devastating effects and advance consensus-based, market-driven solutions to access and affordability challenges as seniors and working families deal with the IRA’s negative consequences, which range from domestic manufacturing job losses to higher launch prices for new drugs.
“The Biden administration is trying to take a victory lap while at the same time they are pricing seniors out of their health care and ensuring future cures never reach those who need them,” claimed Smith, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. In a fruitless attempt to pay for the hundreds of billions in special interest tax incentives for the wealthy and well-connected that were crammed into the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats are dramatically destroying Medicare’s promise to America’s elderly. This price-setting plan guarantees that only the wealthy will be able to purchase the newest treatments while giving government officials command and control over Americans’ access to healthcare.
Americans are already seeing fewer potentially lifesaving medications and treatments, said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Rodgers, as the President triumphantly announces the first ten drugs forced into his socialist pricing setting scheme. “President Biden jumped at the chance to support the Cancer Moonshot project, but the people who will suffer the most are the patients, such as those who are fighting cancer and depend on cutting-edge therapies. The incentives provided by the new system for determining medicine costs may also result in higher initial list prices, thereby eliminating any savings for patients. Our committees will continue to work to lessen the worst consequences of the Innovation Reduction Act, and we are asking our partisan allies to support us in defending patients’ access to innovative therapies and cures.