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    • CMS demo aims to conceal true costs of Inflation Reduction Act
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    CMS demo aims to conceal true costs of Inflation Reduction Act

    Madoc Meredith Posted on

    Saul Anuzis
    | The Detroit News

    The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently orchestrated a $5 billion election-year bailout of Democrats to hide the true cost of the Biden-Harris administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) until voters cast their ballots.

    Here’s the bombshell CMS is trying to defuse: The average monthly bid for basic Medicare Part D plans was set to explode by 179% because of changes the IRA made to Medicare. That increase would have triggered the announcement of significant premium increases for seniors just weeks before Election Day.

    Enter the CMS’s last-minute “demonstration program,” a $5 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of insurers designed to protect Democrats from the IRA’s electoral impact.

    The timing is pure political theater. CMS usually announces such changes in July so seniors can prepare for open enrollment in the fall. With increases coming this year, they delayed the announcement and conjured up this “demo” at the last possible moment.

    Democrats sold the IRA as a solution to America’s health care problems. Instead, it destroyed Medicare Part D, one of the few government programs that actually worked well. Now taxpayers are footing a billion-dollar bill to cover up this political disaster.

    Yet even this election gimmick cannot hide the IRA’s fundamental flaws forever. Once the political dust settles, retirees will face the harsh reality. Although the IRA’s $2,000 deductible cap takes effect next year, about 3.5 million Medicare beneficiaries could see their drug costs rise from 2025 to 2026. Low-income beneficiaries could see a 27 percent increase, while retirees covered by their former employer’s plans could face a 29 percent increase.

    The IRA’s failures don’t just affect retirees. It’s a classic case of government overreach that creates more problems than it solves. The IRA’s price controls hinder the ability of pharmaceutical companies to invest in innovative drugs and deprive Americans of life-saving treatments.

    As insurers grapple with the IRA’s restrictive rules, they will likely limit their drug lists, limiting the range of drugs available to patients and forcing seniors to overcome prior authorizations and other hurdles to obtain them. While some drug prices might go down, the overall cost burden will simply be shifted to premiums and other copayments.

    Americans deserve better. The CMS program does nothing to address the fundamental problems of our health care system.

    We must repeal the harmful provisions of the IRA and return to a system that uses market forces to naturally drive down costs. That means streamlining the FDA approval process for generics and biosimilars. We must require clear, up-front prices for medical procedures and drugs so patients can make informed decisions. And we must crack down on the middlemen in the system who currently enrich themselves through their mastery of bureaucratic secrets.

    Free-market approaches would reduce costs without the need for rigorous government intervention, preserving the innovative spirit that has made American health care the envy of the world while making it more accessible and affordable for all Americans.

    It is time for voters to see through the fog, recognise the true cost of the IRA and demand real, lasting solutions that will prevent us from facing the same crisis year after year.

    Saul Anuzis is president of 60 Plus, the American Association of Seniors.

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    Madoc Meredith
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