John,

Last Friday marked the two year anniversary of the historic Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and in that time major changes have been made when it comes to health care, particularly health care costs.

For Medicare recipients, prescription drug costs are being cut, insulin has been capped at $35 per month, and there is now a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs—saving families millions of dollars each year.

The Biden-Harris administration has recently announced that it has reached agreements with drug manufacturers to lower costs of the first 10 drugs selected for the Medicare price negotiation program. These drugs are some of the most expensive drugs used by Medicare recipients and they treat heart disease, diabetes, and some forms of cancer. The new prices go into effect on January 1, 2026 and are estimated to save Medicare an estimated $6 billion and people on Medicare an estimated $1.5 billion in prescription costs.¹

While this is excellent news and a great first step, we must go further and faster. In their budget proposal for next year, the Biden-Harris administration called for expanding the $35 insulin cap for everyone, not just those on Medicare, and for capping out of pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year for everyone.²

There are currently three bills before Congress that do much of what President Biden and Vice President Harris are calling for―the Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act (H.R. 4895), the INSULIN Act of 2023 (S.1269), and the Affordable Insulin Now Act of 2023 (S.954).

Congress must build on the success of the Biden-Harris administration and continue to lower prescription drug costs for millions of Americans. Send a message to your members of Congress today to tell them you want affordable prescription drug costs now.

Other countries negotiate for lower drug prices, which is why the U.S. spends $1,126 per capita on prescription medications vs. $522 per capita in comparable countries.³ This is nothing more than pure corporate greed at the expense of most Americans, especially older Americans and people with disabilities.

And while Americans are spending thousands of dollars each year on prescription drugs, drug companies continue to get richer.

For the 3rd Quarter of 2023, manufacturers for the first 10 drugs selected for Medicare negotiation under the IRA made $100.7 billion in revenue and spent $19.96 billion of that revenue enriching shareholders via stock buybacks.⁴ That’s money that could have been used for research and development or used to lower costs for consumers. Instead, Big Pharma is using its massive profits to manipulate stock prices and further enrich the already wealthy.

These corporations are also exploiting loopholes in the tax code. And due to the 2017 Trump tax cuts that dramatically cut corporate tax rates, those same companies ended up paying an average effective U.S. tax rate of just 11.6%―a 40% decrease from years prior.⁵

We cannot allow these major corporations to continue to get rich off the backs of everyday Americans. Congress must act now.

Send a message to your members of Congress demanding they stand up to Big Pharma and expand the prescription drug wins of the Biden-Harris administration.

Thank you for all you do,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, CHN Action

¹ Negotiating for Lower Drug Prices Works, Saves Billions
² FACT SHEET: The President’s Budget Lowers Costs for the American People
³ How do prescription drug costs in the United States compare to other countries?
⁴ Greed Watch: Big Drug Companies Continue to Bring In Hundreds of Billions While Americans Struggle to Afford Skyrocketing Prices
⁵ American Patients, American Companies, Offshore Profits Senate Finance Committee Democratic Staff Memorandum, May 11, 2023