by Margaret Pierce, a resident of Springfield, Virginia.
I worked for over 44 years as an administrative assistant. I loved my job, but there came a time when I knew I was ready to retire. Because I have diabetes, I was worried I might have to work forever because I did not want to lose the great health insurance I had through my employer. Back in 2022, I began to research what my insulin costs might look like on Medicare, and I soon learned that the Inflation Reduction Act would cap both of the two types of insulin I need at $35 per month.
I was stunned, as I expected to pay significantly more under Medicare. It is no exaggeration to say that the Inflation Reduction Act – passed by President Joe Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, and Democrats in Congress – is one of the most transformative health care laws in history.
That’s because the savings under the Inflation Reduction Act don’t stop at insulin. Beginning in 2025, Medicare enrollees will benefit from a $2,000 cap on total out-of-pocket costs for all prescription drugs. AARP recently released a report showing that the cap would impact an estimated 66,617 Virginians. For seniors living on Social Security, those savings are life-changing. A difference of even a few thousand dollars a year can significantly impact our ability to retire in peace, knowing we don’t have to choose between our groceries and our medicine.
The Inflation Reduction Act also empowered Medicare to begin negotiating the prices of certain high-cost drugs. In August 2024, the Biden-Harris administration announced that Medicare had successfully negotiated the first round of drugs, which will impact 193,000 Virginia seniors who rely on those medications. Those drugs include Jardiance, which treats diabetes. Beginning in 2026, the negotiated price for a 30-day supply will be $197, down from $573 in 2023. The price for a 30-day supply of Entresto, a drug that treats heart failure, dropped to $295 from $628.
Another important provision of the Inflation Reduction Act gives seniors on Medicare to access zero-cost vaccines, including the shingles vaccine. A study showed that the number of shingles vaccines received by seniors on Medicare rose by 46 percent in the year following the implementation of this part of the law.
I was even more heartened to hear that thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act and the public pressure from the Biden-Harris administration, three of the biggest insulin manufacturers announced they were lowering the costs of insulin to $35 as well. This means that not only will seniors benefit from the significant savings from the Inflation Reduction Act, but everyone, regardless of age, who purchases insulin from Sanofi, Eli Lilly, and Novo Nordisk would save significant money, especially uninsured Virginians. The move follows that of Virginia Democrats, who capped insulin at $50 per month in 2020.
Unfortunately, all these savings are at risk. Donald Trump and his allies would set back all this progress made on lowering health care costs. In fact, Project 2025 explicitly calls for the repeal of the portions of the Inflation Reduction Act that are related to prescription drugs.
If these extremists are successful, then seniors will once again be at the whim of pharmaceutical companies that will be able to charge us skyrocketing drug costs. For seniors on fixed incomes, this would be particularly devastating. Donald Trump has called once again for the repeal of the ACA, which would end critical protections for people with pre–existing conditions and throw millions of people off their health insurance.
We need to build the same people-powered movement that protected the Affordable Care Act from previous attempts at repeal. That means sharing our stories about how the Inflation Reduction Act is saving lives and money by ensuring health care is more affordable and accessible to all. We also need to continue to speak with our representatives in Congress and tell them how important the Inflation Reduction Act is to our livelihoods so that they continue to reject any efforts to repeal this truly historic law. We must do everything we can to protect the progress made and build on it, not set us back.
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