Biden, actions on prescription drug costs
In light of a worrisome inflation report in the last weeks before the midterm elections, President Joe Biden will highlight his administration’s attempts to reduce prescription drug costs on Friday as part of his three-state Western tour.
To speak with senior citizens and promote his administration’s initiatives to lower inflation and lower expenses, Biden traveled to a community college in Irvine, California. The trip follows the announcement that millions of Social Security beneficiaries will receive an 8.7% rise in benefits in 2023. This is a historic increase, but it will be partially offset by the rising cost of living.
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Still, according to Biden, seniors “will outpace inflation next year.” For the first time in ten years, Social Security benefits will increase while Medicare premiums will decrease. Seniors take it very seriously, he continued.
Despite the president’s efforts, inflation is increasing, and Republicans are taking advantage of higher costs by spotting opportunities in California and other states where they may perhaps win seats in the U.S. House. Before returning to the East, the president will also visit Oregon, where an independent is dividing the vote in the governor’s race, which is typically dominated by Democrats.
The fastest rate in four decades was seen in September as consumer prices increased 6.6% from a year earlier, excluding volatile food and energy prices. Additionally, such “core” prices increased 0.6% for a second consecutive month, confounding forecasts for a slowdown and showing that the Fed’s several rate hikes have not yet reduced inflationary pressures. A clearer picture of underlying price patterns is often provided by core prices.
Biden says horrifying things about how close the world is to a nuclear holocaust. On Thursday, Biden stated that “Americans are being squeezed by the expense of living. People already know they are being squeezed; they don’t need a report to tell them that. To highlight his administration’s attempts to reduce costs even as inflation rises, Obama also made a return to a metaphor he frequently used during his first year in office, speaking of concerns that Americans discuss at the “kitchen table.”
He said, “from prescription medications to health insurance to electricity costs, and so much more.” We are defending the rights of workers to a raise and a better position at work. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be instructed under an executive order issued by Biden to search for more opportunities to reduce prescription costs.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed into law earlier this year, already mandates that Medicare start negotiating the cost of a select few medications in 2019. The FDA is adjusting how that procedure will operate, recruiting additional personnel for a division dedicated to drug pricing, and is anticipated to choose the first 10 medications that will be subject to negotiation in 2023.
In a variety of less contentious ways, the new law would reduce prescription costs for the 49 million Medicare beneficiaries. Immunizations are made free, out-of-pocket insulin expenditures are limited to $35 per month, and starting in 2025, out-of-pocket prescription costs are limited to $2,000 per year. U.S. security strategy invests domestically while aiming at China and Russia
Biden said that “we took on big pharma and we beat them, finally,” but he urged Congress to take other steps to reduce the cost of insulin for all Americans, not just those covered by Medicare. The vice president said, “Picture being a parent, image not having enough insurance, imagine not being able to afford it, and knowing that if your kid or daughter can’t get the insulin they might be irreparably disfigured” and die.
Additional medicine price reduction initiatives are expected to encounter opposition. The recently acquired authority to negotiate prescription costs is contentious, and the influential pharmaceutical industry is considering taking legal action to stop it from going into effect. Republicans have already put up legislation that would take Medicare’s bargaining power before any negotiations have even started.
Lavrov claims that Russia is open to Putin and Biden meeting at the G20. Beginning the next year, drug manufacturers will also be subject to fines from Medicare if they raise the price of their goods faster than inflation. Additionally, Biden took advantage of the occasion to support Democratic Rep.
Katie Porter is up for reelection this year and needs some support. He described Katie as a “warrior” and said that no pharmaceutical corporation wants to appear before her in front of Congress. She is amazing at what she does, said Biden.
