Supreme Court Protects Medicare’s Power to Negotiate Drug Prices 

By John I. Adams, Chairman 

When the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 and granted Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, everyone knew a fight was coming. The industry quickly filed lawsuits to challenge the legislation, but the Supreme Court has now spoken up to defend lower drug prices for Americans on Medicare.   

Lower court decisions had previously rejected several legal challenges to the drug price negotiation policy. One last opportunity remained: appealing to the Supreme Court. However, this May, the justices said they would decline to hear the appeal cases.  

This action will protect a major new boon for seniors. Prices for the first 10 drugs negotiated as part of the program took effect on January 1st of this year, saving Medicare enrollees an average of more than 50 percent on out-of-pocket costs for these drugs under their insurance plans. Next year, new, negotiated prices will go into effect for 15 more drugs, and then again, each year after that. So far, Medicare has prioritized the drugs several years past FDA approval with high total Medicare spending and no generic or biosimilar equivalents. 

As the new prices become normalized, we expect the law to become more secure with seniors already reaping massive savings on their prescriptions, and more on the way. Could you imagine anyone who publicly stated they want millions of seniors to pay more for their drugs winning your vote? Me either, but some members of Congress might try to cut the program with no one watching if they think we aren’t paying attention.  

That’s why it’s so important that we make our voices heard. Midterm elections are coming this November, so if we want to keep our benefits safe, it’s on us to not just show up and vote. We need to exert the power our votes give us by researching candidates to understand their policies on retirement benefits and making it clear that we’ll hold them accountable at the ballot box.