WASHINGTON — Patients Rising NOW today released “What You Don’t Know About the Reconciliation Bill,” the organization’s fact-check of the drug pricing provisions within the Senate’s reconciliation bill, or the 725-page Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
The list highlights parts of the bill that will negatively hurt patient access to care, both to future innovation and to rebate savings being withheld from patients by pharmacy benefit managers.
“This bill is being touted as a massive, immediate, wide-spread cost savings for seniors at the pharmacy counter. But the reality is that it will help less than 3% of patients, and those savings won’t even start until 2025,” said Terry Wilcox, Co-Founder of Patients Rising Now. “The scary part is it actually has zero hope for immediate savings for all Medicare beneficiaries by killing the Rebate Rule. Until we require pharmacy benefit managers to give patients the savings they deserve at the pharmacy counter, seniors will notice no significant change in their costs.”
The following is a list of impacts the current version of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will have on patients:
- 135 fewer new treatments for patients by 2039. (Source)
- The bill would lead to decreased competition and lower investment in innovation (Source)
- The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) acknowledges that they did NOT predict what kind of drugs, and consequently which patients, would be affected by the bill. (Source)
- The CBO also did NOT analyze the effects of forgone innovation on public health. (Source)
- The bill will lead to fewer single-source drugs available, not more. (Source)
- 331.5 million life years will be lost by the year 2039. (Source)
- More than 590,000 health care jobs may be lost across the entire country. (Source)
- This bill directly impacts patient access to 104 currently approved therapies, including several treatments for chronic disease and cancer. (Source)
- Less than 3% of all Medicare beneficiaries would benefit from the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap. (Source)
- The $2,000 out-of-pocket cap in Medicare Part D would not start until 2025. (Source)
- This bill cancels the Rebate Rule, which would pass rebate savings to all seniors at the pharmacy counter. (Source)
- Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are mentioned only once in the entire bill, and not in a way that addresses the problem of middlemen price-gouging of patients. (Source)
- Cost savings will not be immediate or widespread. Medicare negotiation won’t begin until 2026 and for only 10 drugs. (Source)
