Press Releases
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine applauded the announcement that all 10 drug manufacturers whose drugs were selected for price negotiation with Medicare have agreed to participate in the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. The Inflation Reduction Act, which the senators helped pass last year, allows the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time in history, which will help lower costs for millions of Americans.
In August, CMS announced the first 10 drugs covered under Medicare Part D—among the costliest for the Medicare program without generic competition—that will be eligible for the program. The drug manufacturers had until October 1 to decide whether to participate in negotiations or face penalties. Nationwide, Medicare enrollees covered under Part D paid a total of $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs in 2022 for these 10 drugs. In Virginia, Medicare Part D enrollees have more than 193,000 active prescriptions for these 10 medications.
“Too many Americans aren’t able to afford the medications they need, and that’s why we fought to include a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices,” said the senators. “Today’s announcement that all 10 drug manufacturers will participate in the Inflation Reduction Act’s drug price negotiation program is a positive step towards lowering prescription drug costs for millions of seniors. We’re glad that the program continues to progress and look forward to seeing its full impacts in the years ahead.”
Under the law, CMS will negotiate directly with drug companies, and the first set of negotiated prices will go into effect on January 1, 2026. CMS will then select up to 15 more Part D drugs eligible for negotiation for 2027 and will continue to build on this progress in subsequent years by negotiating prices of more prescription drugs. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the drug price negotiation program will lower Medicare spending by $98.5 billion over 10 years.
Warner and Kaine have championed policies to lower the cost of prescription drugs and long fought to allow CMS and to negotiate drug prices for those on Medicare. The senators repeatedly introduced legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate the best price of prescription drugs for seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D. Additionally, Warner, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, helped author the Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability (MEPA) Act, bipartisan legislation approved by the Committee in July 2023 to help address rising prescription drug prices by regulating the middlemen who manage prescription drug benefits on behalf of health insurers and which included key provisions authored by Warner.
Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP) Committee, previously introduced legislation that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices for Medicare Exchange plans, created under his Medicare-X Choice Act, and the Medicare Part D program. In May 2019, he gave a speech on the Senate floor highlighting stories from Virginians from Martinsville, Norfolk, Arlington, and Virginia Beach who have been hurt by the high cost of prescription drugs and calling for reforms to bring drug prices down. In May 2023, he voted to pass the bipartisan Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reform Act, legislation to lower drug costs, out of the HELP Committee. He has also authored and cosponsored bills to strengthen the pipeline and increase transparency for critical medicines and more efficiently usher drugs to the market by making key improvements to the Food and Drug Administration’s review process for interchangeable biosimilars.
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WASHINGTON – This evening, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) is welcoming Mrs. Marguerite Bailey Young to his Washington, D.C. office ahead of the President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. Mrs. Young, a 94-year-old widow and retired school system administrator from Fredericksburg, is joining Sen. Warner as he highlights how seniors all across Virginia have begun to benefit from historic measures enacted under President Biden to lower the price of insulin and other prescription drugs.
“As a Senator and former Governor, I’ve met countless seniors over the years who have pleaded for the government to do something about the out-of-control costs of prescription drugs. This includes basic and lifesaving medicines like insulin, which has skyrocketed in price despite having been around for a century. It’s an incredible honor to welcome Mrs. Young to the U.S. Capitol and get to hear how the Inflation Reduction Act has made her health care more accessible and her insulin more affordable,” said Sen. Warner
“I’m 94 years young, and I don’t know anything that needs to be affordable more urgently than health care. During my years working in health care, there were many people I knew who had to ask for a fourth of a prescription so that they could get the medicine they needed and still afford to stay in their homes and feed their families,” said Mrs. Young. “As a diabetic and someone living on a fixed income, and as someone who didn’t make a whole lot of money back in the day as a teacher, I’m delighted to be saving close to two thousand dollars a year on my medicines, especially insulin.”
Mrs. Young, an Accomack County native who lives independently and on a fixed income, relies on several daily medicines, including two types of insulin. Like many seniors across the country, Mrs. Young has seen the cost of her insulin drop dramatically thanks to a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act that caps insulin at $35 per month for Medicare recipients.
Mrs. Young has been an active advocate for access to health care for underserved persons in her region. She previously served as a board member of Central Virginia Health Services, a federally qualified health center with more than 15 practice sites throughout Central Virginia. She spent more than 30 years championing healthcare access and equity within her own community, first as a Board Trustees on the Mary Washington Healthcare Board, then as a citizen member on the health system’s board-level committees before retiring just last year.
The Inflation Reduction Act is a historic piece of legislation supported by Sen. Warner, passed by Congress, and signed into law in August of 2022. The Inflation Reduction Act will continue lowering the cost of prescription drugs and health care by capping out-of-pocket costs for seniors, allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, and extending the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years, among a number of other key provisions.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) released the following statement after President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law:
“We’re proud that this law will lower the price of prescription drugs, reduce the deficit, bring down energy bills and fight climate change. We’re also glad that it will help ensure that miners suffering from black lung and their families get the care and benefits they deserve. We will continue to look for ways to support the health and well-being of our communities, decrease inflation, and lower costs for Virginians.”
Below are some of the ways the Inflation Reduction Act will benefit Virginians:
Lower Prescription Drug Costs
- The law allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices for seniors and people with disabilities—a provision Warner and Kaine have long fought to pass to lower prescription drug costs.
- The law establishes a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs for seniors covered under Medicare Part D. In 2020, more than 36,000 Virginians with Medicare Part D spent more than $2,000 out-of-pocket on their prescription drugs.
- The law expands the Low-Income Subsidy program, a program that currently helps cover prescription drug costs for over 11,000 low-income Virginians with Medicare.
- The law provides free coverage for vaccines under Medicare Part D and improves access to vaccines under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In 2020, nearly 85,000 Virginians received a vaccine covered under Medicare Part D.
Affordable Health Care
- During the pandemic, Congress enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to help lower health care premiums for millions of Americans. The Inflation Reduction Act will extend these enhanced subsidies for three years through 2025 to help make Virginians’ health insurance more affordable. Over 300,000 Virginians have ACA coverage in 2022.
- The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) estimated that Virginians with ACA insurance would have seen a $71 increase in their monthly premiums for the next coverage year if these subsidies weren’t extended.
Black Lung Benefits
- The law permanently extends the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund excise tax at a higher rate, providing more certainty for miners, miner retirees, and their families who rely on the fund to access benefits. In Virginia, thousands of miners and their families have received benefits through the trust fund since it was established, including approximately 2,600 Virginians last year alone.
Clean Energy and Climate Provisions
- The law will reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030.
- The law incentivizes investment in and production of renewable energy technologies like solar power and the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. The Inflation Reduction Act expands the 48C investment tax credit for clean energy manufacturers, with $4 billion reserved for use exclusively in coal communities. All clean energy tax credits include a bonus for meeting domestic manufacturing requirements related to steel, iron, or other manufactured components. The law also expands tax credits for residential clean energy and home efficiency improvements.
- According to a recent analysis, the clean energy provisions are expected to create nearly 1 million jobs per year.
- The law includes tax credits for clean medium and heavy duty trucks, such as those produced at the Volvo Trucks New River Valley Plant.
- The law includes a $7,500 consumer credit for the purchase of new electric vehicles and incentivizes that vehicles are produced in North America.
- The law includes $9.7 billion for financial assistance to rural electric cooperatives to improve resilience and affordability.
- The law includes $2 billion for the USDA Rural Energy for America Program to provide competitive grants and loan guarantees to farmers, ranchers, and rural small businesses for renewable energy systems or energy efficiency improvements.
- The law includes $20 billion to help farmers and ranchers adopt agriculture conservation practices that improve landscape resilience.
Tax Fairness
- The law takes steps to make sure that the largest corporations and wealthiest Americans pay their fair share in taxes, without increasing taxes on small businesses or families making less than $400,000 a year.
- The law also provides funding to modernize Internal Revenue Service (IRS) systems and improve customer service when paying taxes. This will help ensure the IRS has the resources it needs to process tax returns quickly, get rebates to taxpayers faster, and address challenges Americans have when filing taxes.
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