Tim Kaine, health care access advocates celebrate second anniversary of Inflation Reduction Act

HENRICO, Va. (CN) — When doctors diagnosed Scott Kizner with aggressive bone and blood cancer, they prescribed 21 doses of Revlimid per month. 

"That medication per pill is $900," Kizner said a Thursday press conference celebrating the second anniversary of the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act. "I have to tell you, once a pill dropped into my kitchen sink, and I almost lost two fingers." 

Before retiring from a long career as a school superintendent, Kizner relied on his employer's health insurance to get by. When Kizner retired and went on Medicare, his wife, who spent 44 years as an educator, delayed her retirement for the sake of Kizner's expensive treatments. 

"The cost of medication was something that was just too much for her to stop working," Kizner, who is now in remission, said. "But now, with the Inflation Reduction Act and the cap, we're looking forward on July one when she'll step down." 

Kizner joined Virginia Senator Tim Kaine and others to celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act anniversary. The sweeping $750 billion health care, tax and climate bill signed into law on August 16, 2022,  allows the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers.

President Joe Biden's administration released the results of the first round of negotiations Thursday. The talks focused on ten commonly used critical medications, including treatments for diabetes, cancer and heart disease. According to the White House, when the negotiated prices go into effect in 2026, people enrolled in Medicare Part D are estimated to save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs.

The most commonly used drug of the ten is Eliquis, which nearly 4 million Medicare patients used in 2023 to prevent and treat blood clots. Negotiators successfully lowered the price from $521 for a monthly supply in 2023 to $231. 

The provisions of the act have delayed effect dates. In 2023, the act required drug companies to pay rebates if drug prices rose compared to inflation, limited insulin cost sharing to $35 a month and reduced vaccine costs for Medicare users. In Virginia, 36,461 users save an average of $510 per person for insulin. 

In 2025, users will have a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs. Thanks to the cap, the 390,400 Virginians using Medicare's prescription drug benefits are projected to save $440 per year. 

The act also extended enhanced premium tax credits, a refundable tax credit designed to help eligible individuals and families with low or moderate income afford health insurance purchased through the Health Insurance Marketplace through 2025. Over 400,000 Virginians enrolled in health insurance plans through the marketplace this past open enrollment period. 

"Those numbers mean that the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, is working for Virginia families," Policy Director for the Commonwealth Institute Freddy Mejia said. "It's making health care more of a right for all rather than a privilege for some, and it's also closing critical health gaps for communities of color." 

The act passed in 2022 without bipartisan support, forcing Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the deciding vote in the Senate. Republicans have criticized the act, claiming it increases inflation.

"The IRA has been a disaster for Virginia and our country. Prices are now more than 20% higher than when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office, and hard-working families are feeling the pain of 'Bidenomics,' which Tim Kaine has voted for every step of the way," a spokesperson from the Republican Party of Virginia said in a statement. "Tim Kaine celebrating the passage of this disastrous bill is yet another sign of just how out of touch he is with the experience of everyday voters." 

Pharmaceutical companies have also opposed the act and claimed it stifles innovation. The industry deflects blame for high drug prices on insurance companies and pharmacy benefit management. 

"There are no assurances patients will see lower out-of-pocket costs because the law did nothing to rein in abuses by insurance companies and PBMs who ultimately decide what medicines are covered and what patients pay at the pharmacy," Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America national spokesperson, Cat Hill, said in a statement. "The ironically named Inflation Reduction Act is a bad deal being forced on American patients: higher costs, more frustrating insurance denials and fewer treatments and cures for our loved ones."

Pharmacy benefit managers are third-party administrators of prescription drug programs for commercial health plans, self-insured employer plans, Medicare Part D plans, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and state government employee plans. When asked, Kaine said he agreed that these administrators are an issue. 

"Everybody has a part to play in it," Kaine said. "In some areas, the PBMs are making greater profits than the pharmaceutical companies that are actually doing the research and producing the life-saving pharmaceutical solutions."

With the original ten medications negotiated though, the Department of Health and Human Services can begin negotiating prices for 15 more drugs with an effective date of 2027. Kizner said he hopes affordable health care doesn't remain a partisan topic. 

"Cancer and any other serious illness, I don't think they look at what your political affiliation is," Kizner said. "So it puzzles me, to be truthful, why this is an issue that has become political."

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