President Trump Pays Lip Service to Seniors’ Issues While Breaking Promises

National Committee president and CEO Max Richtman issued the following statement in response to last night’s State of the Union address: “President Trump paid lip service to preserving Social Security in his State of the Union address tonight, but obscured his true intentions regarding a program that covers 178 million workers — and which another[…]

House Passes Historic Rx Drug Pricing Bill

Thursday was a historic day in the movement to lift the burden of crushing prescription drug prices. The U.S. House passed H.R. 3 – The Lower Drug Costs Now Act – which, among other things, empowers Medicare to negotiate prices directly with drug makers. H.R. 3 also delivers a sorely-needed, $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket[…]

Why Millions of Senior Citizens Can’t Get Needed Medications

(source = https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-19/why-millions-of-senior-citizens-can-t-get-needed-medications) Senior citizens who try to fill prescriptions have them rejected at the pharmacy counter millions of times each year because their doctors either don’t, or are unable to, check whether a patient’s Medicare plan covers a particular drug. That’s the upshot of a new report from a federal watchdog that examines the[…]

Voters Say Congress Needs To Curb Drug Prices, But Are Lawmakers Listening?

(sources = https://khn.org/news/voters-say-congress-needs-to-curb-drug-prices-but-are-lawmakers-listening/) House Democrats are poised to pass sweeping legislation to lower drug prices using strategies President Donald Trump has endorsed. A Trump aide urged the Republican-controlled Senate to vote on a different package curbing drug prices that was drafted by a senior Republican. But at least right now, neither measure appears likely to[…]

List Prices for Medicare Part D Drugs Exceeded Inflation in 2016, 2017, Analysis Says

(source = https://www.centerforbiosimilars.com/news/list-prices-for-medicare-part-d-drugs-exceeded-inflation-in-2016-2017-analysis-says) List price increases for many Medicare Part D drugs—both brands and generics—exceeded inflation in 2016 and 2017, in some cases by a substantial margin, according to a recent analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The inflation rate between July 2016 and July 2017 was 1.7%, and of the 2879 drugs reported in[…]

Medicare Enrollees May Be Able to Change 2020 Plans Later Due to Trump Admin Errors

The 2020 Medicare open enrollment period ends tomorrow — and it has not been the program’s finest hour. The Trump administration’s new online enrollment tools have been rightly criticized as inaccurate, misleading, and sometimes downright biased toward private plans. With one day left in open enrollment, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has indicated[…]

House to Vote on Landmark Prescription Drug Pricing Bill

Historic legislation to reduce prescription drug prices will come up for a vote in the U.S. House next week. Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced today that the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act will reach the House floor as early as Tuesday. The bill, otherwise known as H.R. 3, would empower the Secretary of[…]

Trump Admin Medicare Enrollment Tools Under Fire

With a little more than a week left of the 2020 Medicare open enrollment season, the Trump administration continues drawing fire for its revamped online tools. On Monday, ProPublica published a scathing report highlighting misleading and inaccurate information on the Medicare Plan Finder. Many of the problems involve prescription drug plans, making it harder for[…]

Senator Wyden Headlines National Committee Town Hall on Rx Drug Pricing

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) headlined a spirited town hall on prescription drug pricing Friday in Portland as part of the National Committee’s “Don’t Cut Pills, Cut Profits” campaign. A capacity crowd of local seniors attended the event at Portland Community College, featuring Senator Wyden, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Oregon state reps. Andrea Salinas and Rachel[…]

Seriously Ill Seniors Face Daunting Costs, Especially for Rx Drugs

The National Committee has been beating the drum about seniors’ rising health care costs for several years. Now, a new study from Health Affairs confirms that seriously ill seniors face especially daunting financial hardships. According to the study, 53% of seriously ill Medicare patients are experiencing grave difficulty paying their medical bills, with unaffordable prescription[…]