The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Miss the Mark, First List of Drugs Subject to Price Negotiations Coming Soon

On September 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will announce the first 10 Medicare Part D drugs chosen for the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. This is the first of many steps in the wrong direction, all created by the Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law a year ago.

The 10 drugs announced on September 1 will be negotiated for a year and price controls will go into effect on January 1, 2026. Looking forward, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will select 15 more Part D drugs for 2027, 15 more Part B or Part D drugs for 2028, and 20 more Part B or Part D drugs every year after that. All of this is a result of the Inflation Reduction Act.

As TAPP has said, these negotiations will lead to price controls that end up harming the medicine industry and decreasing the accessibility of these drugs. The price controls will limit research and prevent the finding of cures and better treatments. Price controls also restrict patient accessibility as the availability of these drugs will drop when companies lose the necessary funding. 

In addition to the consequences listed above, price controls will damage the U.S. economy and force thousands of high-level scientific professionals to lose their jobs. Price controls will set America back in terms of competitive innovation as the opportunity for creativity declines. This will weaken America’s international standing and allow foreign countries to surpass us. It is clear that imitating price control concepts as they have in other countries will ultimately lead to bad health outcomes like prolonged illness, pain, and even premature death for Americans. 

Read some of our talking points on similar past issues here.