Medicare Drug Savings Act Provides Common Sense Solution to High Drug Prices      

                           
In a response to the federal government paying unconscionably high drug prices for dual-eligibles on Medicare, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced legislation today to require drug companies to provide discounts for low-income Medicare beneficiaries, as they currently do under Medicaid. The Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans strongly supports Rockefeller’s legislation which would save taxpayers and Medicare beneficiaries billions of dollars.

After passage of the Medicare prescription drug law in 2003, drug companies received windfalls worth billions of dollars, as a result of no longer applying rebates for dual-eligibles (beneficiaries who qualify for Medicare and Medicaid).  Senator Rockefeller’s 2013 Medicare Drug Savings Act reverts back to previous law and recaptures the savings lost under the Medicare drug law. By simply returning these beneficiaries to Medicaid-negotiated rebates, taxpayers would save $141.2 billion over the next ten years.

The Alliance and our allies continue to plan events around the country for the July 2nd “Human Chain against the Chained CPI” National Day of Action. The day is devoted to stopping the chained CPI benefit cut to Social Security. More than forty actions are already scheduled to take place in front of key Congressional offices and Federal Buildings across the country. A comprehensive ...

According to a new study in the journal Health Affairs, states would save money by accepting the Medicaid expansion in President Obama's health care law. The study finds that fourteen of the states that have rejected the expansion will spend a combined $1 billion more on uncompensated care, and give up $8.4 billion in payments from the federal government. In addition, 3.6 million Americans who ...