US expects $6 billion savings from first Medicare drug price negotiations

way past due but the dems should be reminding the public about this and the reduction in cost of insulin etc

still don't understand why they didn't write it such that all prices could be negotiated instead of a limited number of drugs

will this also automatically drop the cost of the drugs to the insurance companies?

US expects $6 billion savings from first Medicare drug price negotiations (msn.com)

President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in 2022, allows Medicare to negotiate prices for some of the most costly drugs that the program covers for 66 million people.

The new prices will go into effect in 2026. They represent cuts to individual list prices that do not reflect any rebates and discounts the government may already have been getting for the drugs.

Merck & Co's diabetes drug Januvia faces the steepest percentage price cut of the drugs on the list, decreasing 79%, and the prices of Novo Nordisk's insulin as part products will be slashed by 76%, according to the government. The other eight drugs on the list face cuts of between 68% and 38%.

The administration said people covered by Medicare, which mostly serves Americans aged 65 and over, would also save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs for the prescription medicines in 2026. They include widely used diabetes treatments Januvia and Jardiance, blood thinners Eliquis and Xarelto and leukemia drug Imbruvica.