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The Inflation Reduction Act’s Impact
Three things everyone should know about the Inflation Reduction Act: with this law, the American people won and special interests lost. Here are the three things everyone should know: 1. Democrats are lowering health care, prescription drug, and utility costs for working families. 2. Democrats sided with the American people and Republicans sided with special interests. Every single Republican opposed requiring big corporations to pay their fair share, and lowering costs for families. 3. President Biden and Democrats demonstrated that the government can work for working families. Read President Biden’s full op-ed here.
Supporting Rural Communities:
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Access and affordability are significant challenges across rural America and the Democrats understand and are working to address those challenges. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, 65 percent (1.3 million) of the 1.9 million uninsured rural Americans in states using the HealthCare.gov had access to a $0-premium health insurance plan for 2021. The Inflation Reduction Act will help keep free or low-cost health insurance available to rural Americans, with average savings of about $800 per person per year, while at the same time lowers prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare.
Supporting Latino Communities:
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High prices contribute to racial and ethnic health inequities. Among adults 65 and older, Latino Medicare beneficiaries were roughly 1.5 times as likely as White beneficiaries to have trouble affording medications, and about 2 times as likely to not fill needed prescriptions due to cost. For example, a recent study of shingles vaccination rates among older Americans showed non-Latino White Americans were over 2 times as likely to have received the shingles vaccine than Latinos, due in part to difficulty affording the shingles vaccine. The Inflation Reduction Act will help close the gap in access to medication by improving prescription drug coverage and lowering drug prices in Medicare.
Supporting Black Communities:
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Almost 3.9 million Black people were uninsured in 2019 before President Biden took office and over 570,000 Black people fell into the Medicaid “coverage gap” and were locked out of coverage because their state refused to expand Medicaid. Since President Biden took office, the uninsured rate has reached a new historic law: 8% and 5.2 million of Americans have gained health insurance coverage. The Inflation Reduction Act continues the American Rescue Plan’s more generous Affordable Care Act premium tax credits.
Supporting Tribal Communities:
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The Inflation Reduction Act includes investments for a Tribal Electrification Program for Tribes and Tribal organizations to provide electricity to unelectrified Tribal homes through zero-emission energy systems, and to transition electrified homes to zero-emission energy systems. The Inflation Reduction Act also provides additional investments for the Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program, and increases loan guarantees for Tribal energy development from $2 billion to $20 billion.
Supporting AANHPI Communities:
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According to the Small Business Administration, 2 million Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander-owned small businesses in the U.S. generate more than $700 billion in revenues and create 3.6 million jobs. The Inflation Reduction Act includes a number of provisions that will save small business owners money.
Supporting Young Americans:
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This law represents the single most aggressive action the U.S. is taking to tackle the climate crisis and create clean energy solutions in American history. The law will bring down energy costs for families and create thousands of good jobs, all while reducing climate pollution and ensuring that we have a clean, secure future energy supply. The law would reduce about a gigaton (a billion metric tons) of greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 and position America to meet President Biden’s climate goals of cutting climate pollution in half by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by no later than 2050.
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