FacebookTwitterLinkedInInstagram

House Passes Historic Prescription Drug Pricing Legislation

The U.S. House today passed historic legislation to bring down prescription drug prices for tens of millions of American seniors. The Inflation Reduction Act, which the Senate passed last weekend after intense negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, now goes to President Biden's desk for signature.  It is the most sweeping health care legislation since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
2022-08-15T01:42:51-04:00August 12th, 2022|Categories: Congress, Democrats, Medicare, Medicare Drug Coverage and Costs, Medicare Part D and My Current Drug Coverage, Prescription Drug Prices, President Biden|

Prescription Drug Price Reform of Historic Proportions

Those who refer to the Inflation Reduction Act passed by the Senate this past weekend as “historic” are not exaggerating. The Act represents the most muscular legislation to date to try to tame rising prescription drug prices, which can be devastating for seniors.
2022-08-09T13:35:14-04:00August 9th, 2022|Categories: Congress, Democrats, Don't Cut Pills Cut Profits, Max Richtman, Medicare, Prescription Drug Prices, President Biden, Senate, Trump|

Ron Johnson’s Plan is Part of GOP Assault on Seniors’ Earned Benefits

Social Security and Medicare defenders often say that the public doesn’t understand the threat that Republicans pose to these programs.  Indeed, many Republicans proclaim support for both while pushing proposals to undermine them.  But lately it seems as if Republicans are going out of their way to lay bare their intentions – or, as some put it, “to say the quiet part out loud.” Earlier this week, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said during an interview that Social Security and Medicare should no longer be mandatory spending programs
2022-08-05T14:24:23-04:00August 5th, 2022|Categories: Congress, Democrats, Medicare, Republicans, Senator Mitt Romney, Social Insurance, Social Security|

Manchin Pulls the Football Away from Schumer – and Medicare

Senator Joe Manchin has once again pulled the proverbial football away from Chuck Schumer just before the kick. After negotiating with the Senate Majority Leader over a pared-back version of the Build Back Better bill, Sen. Manchin has once again withdrawn his support - not for the entire plan, but for key components that would have helped seniors. He declared on Thursday that he would not support any new tax provisions.  One of these provisions would have closed a loophole, compelling the wealthy to pay a 3.8% investment tax.  The revenue would have been directed to the Medicare Part A trust fund, which is currently projected to run dry in 2028. 
2022-07-16T00:42:30-04:00July 15th, 2022|Categories: Congress, Democrats, Medicare, Prescription Drug Prices, Senate, Senator Joe Manchin|

Schumer-Manchin Negotiations May Yield Some Wins for Seniors

The negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) over a new budget reconciliation deal have been great fodder for political journalists, but they are also incredibly important to American seniors.  Senators Schumer and Manchin are haggling over a pared-down version of the Build Back Better legislation, which the West Virginia Senator effectively killed earlier this year, designed to pass with only Democratic votes via the reconciliation process. The new package reportedly retains some crucial items for older Americans:  prescription drug pricing reform and Medicare solvency.
2022-07-13T15:52:53-04:00July 13th, 2022|Categories: Congress, Democrats, Medicare, Prescription Drug Prices, Senate, Senator Joe Manchin|

House Members Urge CMS to Expand Medicare Dental Coverage

More than 100 members of the U.S. House have sent a letter to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in an effort to expand Medicare dental coverage. (Traditional Medicare only covers “medically necessary” dental care in a narrowly defined way that excludes not only routine care, but many illness-related treatments.)  The members implored CMS administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to broaden the definition of “medically necessary” to cover many more types of dental care.
2022-07-06T16:01:52-04:00July 6th, 2022|Categories: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Congress, Democrats, Medicare|

Don’t Trust Insurance Industry “News” about Medicare Advantage

Deb Gordon’s piece in Forbes entitled, 88% Of Medicare Advantage Enrollees Are Happy With Their Health Insurance, New Study Shows, is more like an industry press release than a bona fide news story. The writer herself is a representative of the insurance industry, hardly an objective author for a piece about the insurance industry.
2022-06-22T09:09:16-04:00June 21st, 2022|Categories: Equal Time, Medicare, Medicare Advantage|

The Part D Prescription Drug Bait and Switch

Medicare Part D prescription drug beneficiaries can be in for a rude surprise after they sign up for coverage.   In an article this week in Kaiser Health News, Susan Jaffe writes that the price of a drug may jump within a month of a patient enrolling in the Part D drug plan
2022-05-06T10:51:04-04:00May 5th, 2022|Categories: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Congress, Democrats, Medicare, Medicare Drug Coverage and Costs, Prescription Drug Prices, President Biden|

Medicare Advantage Slammed in New HHS Inspector General’s Report

We have been sounding alarm bells for many years about Medicare Advantage (MA), the privately-run health plans for seniors that are growing in popularity as an alternative to traditional Medicare. This week, an eye-opening report by the Inspector General’s office at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed some key criticisms by the National Committee and other seniors’ advocates - namely, that MA plans are denying legitimate claims and refusing to authorize reasonable medical procedures.
2022-04-29T20:33:44-04:00April 29th, 2022|Categories: Max Richtman, Medicare, Medicare Advantage|

National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare© Copyright 2025

Go to Top