Rep. Eshoo Applauds Costs Savings through Negotiated Lower Drug Prices

Palo Alto, CA - Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna G. Eshoo (CA-16) today hailed the historic announcement from the Biden Administration that Medicare has successfully negotiated lower prices of ten of the most expensive prescription drugs. This will save Medicare patients $1.5 billion on their out-of-pocket costs in the first year alone.

"Today, we delivered on the promise we made to lower prescription drug costs for Americans when we passed the Inflation Reduction Act two years ago. I'm very proud to have helped write this historic provision that finally gave Medicare the authority to negotiate, and also instituted other policies that are already saving Medicare patients money through free vaccines, insulin capped at $35 a month, and the policy that no Medicare beneficiary will pay a penny more than $2,000 a year total for their prescription drugs. Now for the first time in our history, this landmark law has allowed Medicare to negotiate lower prices for ten of the highest-cost, most used drugs. Patients will see the benefits in the form of over $1.5 billion in savings on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs in the first year alone," Rep. Eshoo said. "Nine of the ten drugs Medicare negotiated lower costs for will now be made available to Medicare patients at prices more than 50 percent lower than in previous years. This is a milestone in lowering health care costs for Americans."

In 2022, the United States spent $4.5 trillion on health care accounting for nearly 20% of the U.S. economy. Drug prices in the U.S. are about three times as much as in other countries. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden in 2022, gave Medicare the authority to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies. The total cost for the ten drugs - Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica, Stelara, Fiasp - was $56.2 billion in 2023. Had the new negotiated prices been in place last year, Medicare would have saved an estimated $6 billion.

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