Medicare Rights Endorses the Medicare Drug Savings Act

[eridani]

This week, Medicare Rights Center President Joe Baker wrote a blog post for The Huffington Post in support of the 2013 Medicare Drug Savings Act, a bill introduced by Senator Jay Rockefeller and Congressman Henry Waxman. This policy would save the federal government more than $140 billion over 10 years by restoring the federal government’s ability to secure more reasonable drug prices for low-income people with Medicare through drug rebates for people with both Medicare and Medicaid.

Passage of the Medicare Modernization Act in 2003 prohibited the federal government from negotiating Medicare drug prices. It also moved people with Medicare and Medicaid into the newly created Medicare prescription drug benefit, Part D. As a result, Medicare lost drug manufacturer discounts still available to the federal government for people with Medicaid, and profits of the largest drug manufacturers skyrocketed—increasing by 34 percent, or $76 billion, in the first year of Medicare Part D.

The Medicare Drug Savings Act would allow the Medicare program to benefit from the same discounts received for people with Medicaid. Restoring the rebates is a good deal for seniors, who might see lower Medicare Part D premiums, while also lowering the nation’s deficit.

Mr. Baker stresses that since half of Medicare beneficiaries live on just $22,500 per year or less, and 15 percent of their total income is consumed by healthcare costs, cost savers like the Medicare Drug Savings Act should be pursued as an alternative to some of the most discussed Medicare savings proposals that would shift costs to a population who cannot afford to pay more.

Read the post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-baker/medicare-big-pharma_b_3100129.html