Medicare’s 56th Anniversary Celebration with Representative Cindy Axne & the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, July 30th

Contact: Logun Buckley,
319-404-3901, logunbuckley@gmail.com

Representative Cindy Axne Celebrates Medicare’s 56th Anniversary By Taking Action To Lower Drug Prices in Upcoming Build Back Better Package

Lowering drug prices through Medicare negotiations would increase affordability and save taxpayers hundreds of billions

CLICK HERE for video of full event.

DES MOINES, IOWA – Representative Cindy Axne joined the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans to celebrate Medicare’s 56th anniversary and to promote current proposals in Congress that could become law as part of this fall’s reconciliation package that would make historic investments in healthcare and the economy.

Medicare is the nation’s health insurance program for people 65 and older and for people with disabilities. Over 634,097 Medicare enrollees live in Iowa and the number is projected to increase as the population ages. Medicare covers a range of health care services, including prescription drugs through Part D but the coverage is often inadequate to make prescriptions affordable.

“With Medicare it seems that, like if one charge is lowered so that they can make a statement that you know, ‘Look we’ve lowered insulin for this group of people,’ then another charge goes up through the roof,” said Deb Sperry, Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans member. “It’s like playing a game of whack-a-mole because you think you can save here and BAM, they hit you with something somewhere else.”

Representative Axne has committed to voting to lower drug prices and support the passage of the Lower Drug Costs Now Act which would lower drug prices through Medicare negotiations, hold drug corporations accountable for raising prices faster than the rate of inflation and create an out of pocket cap for Medicare beneficiaries. Recently Representative Axne signed on to a letter urging the inclusion of Medicare drug price negotiations in the Build Back Better Budget Reconciliation package.

“I’m here to fight for you, whether it’s you know, addressing the issues with Medicare. Whether it is the bill I wrote with Representative Shakowsky to allow folks to write off $1,200 who are caregivers for their elderly, you know it’s a start,” said Representative Axne. “We need to do more, but we’re trying and what I can tell you is you’ve got a commitment from me and you’ve got a commitment from our majority, and we know the value that older Americans bring to this country.”

The price of prescription medicines is rising faster than that of any other medical good or service, yet lawmakers have taken no meaningful action over the past decade to rein in drug corporations’ power to price-gouge despite strong support for policies like Medicare negotiations among Democratic, Republican and Independent voters. President Biden has called for drug pricing reform in the upcoming reconciliation package expected this fall, but the pharmaceutical industry and their supporters in Congress oppose any action to address prices.

Polls show that 80 percent of adults believe prescription drugs are unreasonably expensive and nearly 90 percent of adults support allowing the government to negotiate drug prices. A study from West Health projected that the Lower Drug Costs Now Act would not only lower drug prices for Medicare recipients, but also benefit people with private insurance. It would save employers $256 billion between 2023 to 2029, including a reduction of $61 billion in employees’ share of premiums and cost sharing. Enrollees in Affordable Care Act marketplaces would save $36 billion in premiums and cost sharing over the same time period.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that the reform would save the federal government $500 billion over ten years. The savings from drug reforms could be reinvested to provide expanded services to seniors in Medicare that are currently not available, including coverage for dental, vision and hearing.

“Negotiating prices for prescriptions in Part D and extending those lower prices to people with private insurance is common sense,” said Logun Buckley, Organizer of the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans. “As long as drug corporations have monopoly power to set prices without any accountability for their price-gouging, they will always put profits over people. Many other government programs already negotiate and as a result pay half of what Medicare pays for medicines. It’s long past time to do the same in Medicare and make medicines more affordable for those that need them.”

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CLICK HERE to view the full 56th Anniversary of Medicare Celebration.