Angry Black Grandma Esquire

Rave: Affordable Medications for Seniors: Key Changes
Late last year, one of my doctors prescribed a medication. The medication was going to cost me an $800 a month copay. I told her I couldn’t swing that amount within my budget, so she prescribed a lesser expensive, lesser effective medication.
At the beginning of this year, two prescription drug laws went into effect. These laws will allow me to use the original prescription.

President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law in August 2022. This act will help millions of Americans lie me afford their medications. First, the Medicare drug coverage annual our-of-pocket limit is now limited to $2,000. For me that means a difference of $7,600 out of pocket for that one medication I couldn’t afford last year.

Secondly, medications now can be put on a payment plan. Often the cost of prescriptions is high at the beginning of the year before deductibles are met. The plan doesn’t lower the cost of drugs but allows spreading the cost over 12 months. Spreading the cost over payments lessens the hit that comes with starting a new plan year.

Third, with the $2,000 out-of-pocket limit comes the elimination of the coverage gap. Medicare enrollees used to reach a point in their coverage where their costs changed. We went from set copays to paying 25 percent of the drugs’ costs, which was always higher than the copay. This meant we paid higher costs, which continued until we paid thousands of dollars and entered catastrophic coverage.

Last year the IRA reduced the cost of insulin to $35 a month. Medicare recipients can’t be required to meet a deductible before getting that price.

The federal government, for the first time, negotiated prices on 10 of the most expensive prescribed drugs. They were Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica, Stelara, and Fiasp/NovoLog. These drugs are used to treat life-threatening conditions like diabetes, heart and kidney failure, and cancer. The new prices go into effect in 2026. This year Medicare will negotiate prices on 10 more drugs.

By the time someone is on Medicare, they are on a so-called fixed budget. Prescription drugs can be a major strain on their finances. These changes are huge and the result of the efforts of President Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress. But remember there are those politicians aiming to stop and reverse these benefits. The law passed despite objections from Republican lawmakers. Pay attention and don’t let them take us back.

Rant: The Real Crisis is at the Grocery Store, Not the Border

Many of the postmortems on the 2024 Presidential election pointed to the pain voters were feeling at the grocery store. It boiled down to 47 million voters being concerned about the price of eggs. They couldn’t afford to worry about whether we would have a democracy tomorrow.

Well, the price of eggs has doubled since I bought them before the election. And the price of condensed milk, which I use to sweeten my coffee, costs almost twice as much. Other grocery items are on the rise also.

So here’s my request for the incoming President. If you have a mandate, it was to lower the price of groceries. So on day one, instead of focusing on divisive issues like deporting people, use your magic powers to reduce the price of eggs.