For The First Time, Medicare Will Be Able To Negotiate Drug Prices

We’ve been able to cap how much Medicare recipients will have to pay out of pocket each year for prescription drugs. And, drug corporations will be penalized for raising the prices of drugs under Medicare faster than the rate of inflation.

By Rashida Tlaib

Today [August 12], I voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act―a law that will take steps forward in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, ensuring healthcare for millions of working people, addressing the climate crisis by lowering carbon emissions, and beginning to unrig our tax code so that millionaires, billionaires, and billion-dollar corporations start paying more of their fair share.

You and I both know that this bill is far from what we envisioned one year ago. It excludes many of our priorities from Paid Family Leave to water as a human right to expanding Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision, and much more. It is appalling that the coal industry’s Senator was allowed to hold these programs hostage and write a bill that will also help his friends. This is not the bill our frontline environmental justice advocates would have written, and it’s certainly not the bill those communities deserve.

This bill is even far less than the scaled back tax and investment plan passed by the House last November. It also includes items obviously written by the fossil fuel industry, including opening up more public lands for oil and gas drilling, and investing in false climate solutions like carbon capture and hydrogen, putting even more carbon into the atmosphere. There is also talk of a “permitting reform” deal to come later this year that would totally undermine the climate action in this bill, and I will fight to kill any legislation that weakens our bedrock environmental laws and greenlights destructive fossil fuel infrastructure like the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

But in the context of our current Senate and with control of Congress in the balance in November, it’s also our best chance to make major investments towards the clean, renewable energy sector we deserve, with important programs to make our homes and vehicles cleaner and more efficient on the way. It’s also much more than a climate bill.

For the first time, Medicare will be able to negotiate drug prices. We’ve been able to cap how much Medicare recipients will have to pay out of pocket each year for prescription drugs. And, drug corporations will be penalized for raising the prices of drugs under Medicare faster than the rate of inflation. We need to negotiate more drugs, and faster, but this is a start.

The bill keeps millions of people on their healthcare and avoids skyrocketing healthcare premiums that would have otherwise cost many families an extra $800 out of pocket each year.

And, importantly, this bill begins to unrig our tax code by implementing a 15% corporate minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations like Amazon that often pay little or nothing in federal income tax. It invests in the IRS to better serve everyday taxpayers while cracking down on wealthy tax cheats who illegally evade $163 billion in taxes each year. And it implements a 1% tax on stock buybacks, which publicly traded corporations use to enrich their wealthy shareholders and CEOs instead of investing in better wages and benefits for their workers.

But this must be just the beginning. Democratic leadership negotiated this bill and I will push them to keep the promises they are pushing with this bill. We must ensure these incentives and rebates are effectively and efficiently implemented and available to people of all incomes and walks of life. We must empower frontline environmental justice advocates to lead the way on climate policy, not Congress’ biggest recipient of fossil fuel donations. We must continue to fight for the justice and opportunity our communities deserve.