Lower Medicare/Medicaid Drug Prices Announced By Biden-Harris Administration

 

This is a BFD for many seniors and their families :

The first-ever negotiations between the federal government and pharmaceutical companies have led to agreements that will lower the prices of 10 treatments, reducing costs for the Medicare program and for some individual seniors, the Biden administration announced early Thursday morning.

This round of negotiations began one year ago and took place because of the Inflation Reduction Act, the law that Democrats in Congress passed on a party-line vote and that President Joe Biden signed two years ago. The new prices are for drugs covering a variety of conditions, including diabetes and inflammatory illnesses, and will take effect in January 2026.

The negotiation process is going to happen each year, with a new set of drugs each time.

“When these lower prices go into effect, people on Medicare will save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs for their prescription drugs and Medicare will save $6 billion in the first year alone,” Biden said in a prepared statement. “It’s a relief for the millions of seniors that take these drugs to treat everything from heart failure, blood clots, diabetes, arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and more ― and it’s a relief for American taxpayers...

A statement released by the White House details the treatments and lower costs.  Here's their summary chart of the 10 initial drugs affected (click to enlarge):

The statement goes on to note

People with Medicare will continue to see their prescription drug costs go down as more provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act go into effect next year. Nearly 19 million seniors and other Part D beneficiaries are projected to save $400 per year on prescription drugs when the out-of-pocket cap drops to $2,000 in 2025, and 1.9 million enrollees with the highest drug costs will save an average of $2,500 per year. And the lower prices negotiated for the high-spend drugs announced today will go into effect in 2026.

This is not just going to cut costs for many seniors on fixed incomes, but it's also going to save lives as more people have access to once- unaffordable treatments.  As the article points out, this is the result of the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Democrats with no Republican support (although watch them try to claim it!).  These are the compassionate, practical results you get with Democratic governance.

(Photo:  Patrick Semansky/ AP)

QOTD -- Democrats In Array

 

"Wait, what? All of a sudden, Democrats are no longer in disarray. Instead, they’re marching in tight formation and achieving major goals. It’s such an unfamiliar sensation that it’s almost hard to recognize when it’s happening.

"Transformational legislation like the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) wasn’t possible, according to the hive-mind narrative that many in Washington followed as recently as a few weeks ago. President Biden’s ambitious agenda was supposedly dead in the water. Squabbling Democrats would limp into the midterm elections, the only question how badly they would lose.

"Now, it’s a different story." -- Eugene Robinson in today's Washington Post, on the shifting political winds that the pundits and Beltway kool kidz continue to downplay.  Even before the IRA's passage in the Senate, Christofascist Republican overreach on abortion combined with revelations by the January 6 committee (and a slew of crackpot Republican candidates running in key elections) was beginning to move the needle in the Democrats' favor in the midterm elections.  Now, beyond the myriad reasons not to turn control of the legislative branch over to the Christofascists, Democrats have an historic, positive and popular legislative record to run on.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

We're doing a Mueller report- free- zone for your Monday reading, since you can look at many other sites for takes, hot and not.

Eliza Newlin Carney reminds us all why Republicans are so afraid of voter turnout:

Recent findings that voter turnout broke a century-old record last year and could cause another “100-year storm of voters” in 2020 must play on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s worst fears.

Not only did the annual America Goes to the Polls report, put out by Nonprofit VOTE and the U.S. Elections Project, show historic jumps in Latino and youth voter turnout. The report also found that voter-friendly policies, such as same-day and automatic voter registration, are vastly boosting turnout. The top ten states with the highest turnout—averaging 61 percent—were also the ones that made it easiest for voters to cast ballots. By contrast, the ten lowest-ranking states had turnout averaging in the low forties.

This is one of the leading reasons McConnell is so hostile to HR 1, the package of democracy reforms that House Democrats recently approved unanimously, with nary a GOP vote. The legislation does far more than facilitate voting, of course. It also sets out to overhaul the political money, ethics and lobbying rules, among other changes. But a big part of the so-called For the People Act is about removing barriers to the polls.

Again, Democrats are walking and chewing gum at the same time, contrary to what you might read about investigations into the Trump crime family taking too much attention and time away from "real legislatin'."

Meanwhile, the selling off of America continues unabated. Lance Williams at the Center for Investigative Reporting:

Gathered for a private meeting at a beachside Ritz–Carlton in Southern California, the oil executives were celebrating a colleague’s sudden rise. David Bernhardt, their former lawyer, had been appointed by President Donald Trump to the powerful No. 2 spot at the Department of the Interior. [snip]

Dan Naatz, the association’s political director, told the conference room audience of about 100 executives that Bernhardt’s new role meant their priorities would be heard at the highest levels of Interior.

“We know him very well, and we have direct access to him, have conversations with him about issues ranging from federal land access to endangered species, to a lot of issues,” Naatz said, according to an hourlong recording of the June 2017 event in Laguna Niguel provided to Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

The recording gives a rare look behind the curtain of an influential oil industry lobbying group that spends more than $1 million per year to push its agenda in Congress and federal regulatory agencies. The previous eight years had been dispiriting for the industry: As IPAA vice president Jeff Eshelman told the group, it had seemed as though the Obama administration and environmental groups had put together “their target list of everything that they wanted done to shut down the oil and gas industry.” But now, the oil executives were almost giddy at the prospect of high-level executive branch access of the sort they hadn’t enjoyed since Dick Cheney, a fellow oilman, was vice president. (our emphasis)

As has become his practice, the Very Stable Genius (a.k.a., Individual 1) is nominating a fellow dolt to an important position.  Here's Jon Chait:

Stephen Moore’s career as an economic analyst has been a decades-long continuous procession of error and hackery. It is not despite but precisely because of these errors that Moore now finds himself in the astonishing position of having been offered a position on the Federal Reserve board by President Trump.

Moore’s primary area of pseudo-expertise — he is not an economist — is fiscal policy. He is a dedicated advocate of supply-side economics, relentlessly promoting his fanatical hatred of redistribution and belief that lower taxes for the rich can and will unleash wondrous prosperity. Like nearly all supply-siders, he has clung to this dogma in the face of repeated, spectacular failures.

Moore is likely to face stiff opposition for confirmation, but expecting the supine Republican Senate not to go along with Individual 1's pick is hard to imagine.

Finally, you can find plenty of non- Mueller- report topics over at Infidel 753's blog round- up to engage your mind.  As always, a visit is highly recommended.

Democrats Pass Bold Voting Rights And Ethics Bill -- "For The People"

A united House Democratic caucus passed H.R. 1 (as Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, "a power grab on behalf of the people") yesterday without (surprise!) a single Republican vote.  The bill, the "For the People Act," is a bold step toward reforming campaign financing, voting rights and government ethics.  It has Republicans so scared that the man most responsible for undermining American democracy in the past 10 years, über cynic Mitch "Missy" McConnell won't bring it up for debate or a vote in the Senate.

Nevertheless, just as past progressive legislation was frustrated and bottled up before ultimately passing (labor rights, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, civil rights, etc.), H.R. 1 represents an important, necessary step forward and a marker for where a unified Democratic government would take us. Below is a brief summary of the bill, authored by this Hackwhacker's Congressman, John Sarbanes (D-MD).  (It's in pdf, so we had to take a screen shot. To see in more readable format, please go to link below):







The above text and a fuller section- by- section outline of the bill (pdf format) is available here.

Hey Democrats: Republicans Don't Need Our Help

Here we are at the end of 2017.  The plutocrat's Republican Party has jammed its wealthfare bill through Congress, including provisions to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling and to eliminate the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate, fast- tracked far- right Trump judges through the Senate, refused to provide relief to Dreamers (with help from some spineless Dems), and have acted unilaterally to enact their dystopian agenda for America.  Now, with the threat of a Democratic wave election in 2018 looming, cold- blooded turtle/ human hybrid Sen. Mitch "Missy" McConnell is making noises about more "bipartisanship" in the next session -- meaning they're looking for cover and want to get bailed out by certain deal- making Democrats (=cough= Schumer =cough=), the same Democrats they were perfectly willing to ignore, trash and generally stick it to for the past year in their reckless rush to loot America and prop up dimwit demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump.  (If that's not enough, keep in mind what McConnell did to keep Merrick Garland off the Supreme Court!)

Democrats should be confident going into the coming year and not play the game that McConnell and his band of nihilistic thugs would like them to play. They would be wise to follow this advice from Oliver Willis concerning Sens. Susan Collins and "Liddle Bob" Corker falling in line:

This desire to see good in Republicans doing America harm is a liberal failing. They are not allies, or even temporary sources of help. They are part and parcel of the entire Republican machine that installed Trump in the first place and continues to prop up his failed presidency. 

There isn’t a dividing line. They’re on the same team. They chose long ago – from even the Nixon years – to put party over country every time. If the choice for the right is destabilizing America or aiding their fellow Republican president, they will always choose the latter. 

Quit thinking that this brand of person – just another cultist with fleeting flashes of dignity – is of any worth. They are part of the side trying to submerge America in racism, misogyny, and evil. 

They don’t need your help.

If, of course, they want to test McConnell's and his Congressional cohorts' sincerity, here are a few things they could demand for their "bipartisan" cooperation:

1.  Pass a permanent fix for DACA immediately;

2.  Stop efforts to undermine and disparage Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the F.B.I. and the intelligence community, and pass legislation to protect Mueller and his investigation;

3.  Shore up Affordable Care Act markets to minimize premium increases due to Republican sabotage of the individual mandate provision;

4.  Override the FCC's gutting of net neutrality;

5.  End efforts to undercut Dodd- Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Board;

6.  A small niggle: have his caucus refer to the Democratic Party, not the pejorative "Democrat" party, a Republican tactic for half a century.

That's just for starters, to see how serious McConnell and his thugs are (spoiler alert:  they're not; see Oliver Willis, above).  But, wouldn't it be interesting to see Democrats try to leverage action on an agenda to run on in 2018, even if it turns out to be a non- starter for now?

BONUS:  Digby concurs.