Concord, New Hampshire – President Biden touted his administration’s progress in bringing down medication costs during a visit to New Hampshire on Tuesday alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, as the president seeks to cement his policy legacy.
Mr. Biden said Americans pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs because of the high prices pharmaceutical companies charge. “It’s not capitalism. It’s exploitation when Big Pharma doesn’t play by the rules,” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden spoke at Concord Community College, where he highlighted a new report by the Department of Health and Human Services that found nearly 1.5 million Medicare enrollees saved nearly $1 billion on prescription drugs in the first half of 2024. Even though it was an official White House event, the president needled former President Trump over the Republican nominee’s comment that he has “concepts” of a health care plan, the latest example of how murky the line between official and political events can be in a presidential election year.
“I’m trying to be a very good fellow,” Mr. Biden said. “I’m not letting my Irish get the best of me. But my predecessor, the distinguished former president, he wants to replace the Affordable Care Act with what he calls, this is what he refers to it as, a concept of a plan. I’ve heard that concept of a plan now for almost eight years. A concept of a plan — what the hell is a concept of a — he has no concept of anything! No plan!”
The savings are a result of the cap on out-of-pocket drug costs put in place by the Inflation Reduction Act, a signature piece of legislation the president signed into law in 2022. The law capped out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries at $3,500 per year, and next year the cap will go down to $2,000 per year.
“Congress has talked a lot about this, but just never got much done. And partly it had to do with the fact that Pharma is such a big lobbyist,” Leighton Ku, a professor in the department of health policy and management at George Washington University, said in an interview with CBS News. “So the fact that the Biden administration could work with Congress to get even these marginal things done is impressive.”
The Biden administration had previously negotiated prices for 10 widely used prescription drugs after a back-and-forth between Medicare and drug manufacturers, and capped insulin at $35 per month for many patients.
On Monday, the White House also proposed a plan that, if put into effect, would require private insurers to cover over-the-counter birth control methods at no cost to patients.
In a statement released ahead of Tuesday’s event, Sanders praised the administration’s efforts to lower drug prices. “For the first time in history, Medicare is negotiating to lower the prices of some of the most expensive prescription drugs in America,” the Vermont senator said. “But, let’s be clear. Much more needs to be done. In my view, nobody in America should be paying more for prescription drugs than they do in Europe or Canada.”
Mr. Biden is also expected to make a stop at a campaign office while in the Granite State.
Kathryn Watson
contributed to this report.
