It’s Tuesday…
President Biden’s public schedule for 08/29/2023:
| 10:00 AM | In-Town Pool Call Time The White House In-Town Pool |
| 1:00 PM Press Briefing | Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre James S. Brady Press Briefing Room |
| 2:00 PM Remarks | The President delivers remarks at an event on lowering health care costs; The Vice President participates East Room Pre-Credentialed Media & Pooled for TV |
| 3:45 PM Bilateral Meeting | The President holds a bilateral meeting with President Rodrigo Chaves Robles of Costa Rica Oval Office In-House Pool Spray |
Press Briefing 1:00 p.m. D.C., time:
The First Ten Drugs Selected for Medicare Price Negotiation Tweets
From Tuesday…
The White House posted…
This action is on top of progress previously made in reducing the cost of insulin to $35 a month for people with Medicare
For far too long, Americans have paid more for prescriptions drugs than any major economy. But now, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare can directly negotiate prescription drug prices to get a better deal for seniors. Today, Medicare has for the first time selected 10 drugs for negotiation. Seniors paid $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs for these drugs in 2022.
Big Pharma has long fought this progress. Their profits grew as they spent more on stock buybacks and dividends than they spent on research and development, even as nearly three in ten Americans struggle to afford their medications because of cost.
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is delivering on another significant milestone in implementing President Biden’s historic law to lower health care and prescription drug costs and ushering in a new era for American seniors. Over the next 4 years, Medicare will negotiate prices for up to 60 drugs covered under Medicare Part D and Part B, and up to an additional 20 drugs every year after that.
HHS Announces First Set of Drugs Selected for Medicare Price Negotiation
For the first time ever, HHS announced ten drugs selected for Medicare drug price negotiation:
White House.gov. 08/29/2023.
| Drug Name | Commonly Treated Conditions | Total Part D Gross Covered Prescription Drug Costs from June 2022-May 2023 | Number of Medicare Part D Enrollees Who Used the Drug from June 2022-May 2023 | Average Part D Covered Prescription Drug Costs Per Enrollee |
| Eliquis | Prevention and treatment of blood clots | $16,482,621,000 | 3,706,000 | $4,448 |
| Jardiance | Diabetes; Heart failure | $7,057,707,000 | 1,573,000 | $4,487 |
| Xarelto | Prevention and treatment of blood clots; Reduction of risk for patients with coronary or peripheral artery disease | $6,031,393,000 | 1,337,000 | $4,511 |
| Januvia | Diabetes | $4,087,081,000 | 869,000 | $4,703 |
| Farxiga | Diabetes; Heart failure; Chronic kidney disease | $3,268,329,000 | 799,000 | $4,091 |
| Entresto | Heart failure | $2,884,877,000 | 587,000 | $4,915 |
| Enbrel | Rheumatoid arthritis; Psoriasis; Psoriatic arthritis | $2,791,105,000 | 48,000 | $58,148 |
| Imbruvica | Blood cancers | $2,663,560,000 | 20,000 | $133,178 |
| Stelara | Psoriasis; Psoriatic arthritis; Crohn’s disease; Ulcerative colitis | $2,638,929,000 | 22,000 | $119,951 |
| Fiasp; Fiasp FlexTouch; Fiasp PenFill; NovoLog; NovoLog FlexPen; NovoLog PenFill | Diabetes | $2,576,586,000 | 777,000 | $3,316 |
These ten drugs are among those with highest total spending in Medicare Part D. Millions of Part D enrollees depend on these vital treatments to treat life-threatening conditions including diabetes, heart failure, and cancer, but many struggle to access their medications because of prohibitive costs.
Medicare drug price negotiation will result in lower out-of-pocket costs for seniors and will save money for American taxpayers. Negotiations for the first group of selected drugs will begin in 2023, with negotiated prices going into effect in 2026.
White House.gov. 08/29/2023.
Out-of-Pocket Costs for Drugs Covered Under Part D Selected for Drug Price Negotiation, by State
Today HHS also released a report showing that 9 million Medicare Part D enrollees took the drugs covered under Part D selected for negotiation and paid a total of $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs for these drugs in 2022. For enrollees without additional financial assistance, average annual out-of-pocket costs for these drugs were as high as $6,497 per enrollee in 2022.
To view a state-by-state breakdown of the number of Medicare enrollees who use the prescription drugs selected for negotiation and their out-of-pocket costs, visit HHS’s website.
White House.gov. 08/29/2023.
Continuing to Lower Prescription Drug Costs
Every day, millions of seniors are saving money on prescription drug costs because of the Biden Administration’s actions. People with Medicare are saving an average of $70 in out-of-pocket costs on vaccines like shingles and Tdap because President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act made recommended vaccines free for beneficiaries starting this past January. Nearly four million seniors and others on Medicare with diabetes started to see their insulin costs capped at $35 per month this past January, saving some seniors hundreds of dollars for a month’s supply. And some seniors taking drugs covered under Part B for which manufacturers have hiked prices faster than inflation are saving up to $449 in lower coinsurance this quarter thanks to the new Medicare inflation rebates.
People with Medicare will continue to see their prescription drug costs go down as more provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act go into effect in the coming years. Part D enrollees will no longer pay 5% co-insurance when they reach the catastrophic phase of their benefit starting in 2024. Nearly 19 million seniors and other Part D beneficiaries are projected to save $400 per year on prescription drugs when the out-of-pocket cap drops to $2,000 in 2025, and 1.9 million enrollees with the highest drug costs will save an average of $2,500 per year. And the lower prices negotiated for the high-spend drugs selected today will go into effect in 2026.
The President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 builds upon the Inflation Reduction Act to continue lowering the cost of prescription drugs. For Medicare, this includes further expanding the newly established negotiation authority by extending it to more drugs and bringing drugs into negotiation sooner after they launch. The Budget also includes proposals to curb inflation in prescription drug prices and cap the prices of insulin products at $35 for a monthly prescription in the commercial market to lower drug costs for all Americans.
White House.gov. 08/29/2023.
Statement from President Biden on Historic Action to Lower Prescription Drug Costs:
For far too long, Americans have paid more for prescription drugs than any major economy. And while the pharmaceutical industry makes record profits, millions of Americans are forced to choose between paying for medications they need to live or paying for food, rent, and other basic necessities. Those days are ending.
White House.gov. 08/29/223.
Today, my Administration announced the first 10 Medicare Part D drugs that have been selected for price negotiation — for the first time ever. They are among the most common and costly prescriptions that treat everything from heart failure, blood clots, diabetes, arthritis, Crohn’s disease – and more. This is on top of progress we made in reducing the cost of insulin to $35 a month for seniors on Medicare.
We’ve reached this milestone because of the Inflation Reduction Act– one of the most significant laws ever enacted, and one that passed with the leadership of Democrats in Congress. We took on Big Pharma and special interests, overcoming opposition from every Republican in Congress, and the American people won.
When implemented, prices on negotiated drugs will decrease for up to 9 million seniors. These seniors currently pay up to $6,497 in out-of-pocket costs per year for these prescriptions. In addition, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that this will save taxpayers $160 billion by reducing how much Medicare pays for drugs through negotiation and inflation rebates.
This plan is a key part of Bidenomics, my economic vision for growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up – not the top down. And it’s working. That’s why Big Pharma has already filed eight lawsuits against my Administration, and spent nearly $400 million last year to try to stop our progress. Let me be clear: I am not backing down. There is no reason why Americans should be forced to pay more than any developed nation for life-saving prescriptions just to pad Big Pharma’s pockets. For many Americans, the cost of one drug is the difference between life and death, dignity and dependence, hope and fear. That is why we will continue the fight to lower healthcare costs – and we will not stop until we finish the job.
President Biden and Vice President Harris Deliver Remarks on Lowering Healthcare Costs 2:00 p.m. D.C., time.
Simone Biles Tweet
From Monday…
Taken from yesterday’s Note:
60th Anniversary of the March on Washington Tweets
From Monday…
The YouTube is 23 minutes and 56 seconds long. The White House has not posted his remarks as of 8:45 a.m. my time.
The video clip is 1 minute long. Transcript by me.
President Biden:
On Saturday morning, the nation observed the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. By the evening a white gunman in Jacksonville, Florida, reportedly driven by racial animus, went on a shooting rampage at a store near Edward Waters University–a historical Black university.
Three Black Americans were murdered in cold blood. Racist violence today harkens back to the church bombings and the cross burnings.
While we gather the facts and law enforcement has opened a federal civil rights investigation to treat this terror as a possible hate crime, the act of domestic violent extremism, it clearly is.
But we know this, as I made clear in my inaugural address, white supremacy is a poison. It’s a poison. The U.S. intelligence community has determined that domestic terrorism rooted in white supremacy, is the greatest terrorist threat we face in the homeland.
We have to act. We have to act.
POTUS Twitter. 08/28/2023.
Dataset at Harvard Dataverse: dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?…
From 2019. It’s a Historical Index of Ethnic Fractionalization Dataset (HIEF); have to download in order to read it.
The summary says: The Historical Index of Ethnic Fractionalization (HIEF) dataset contains an ethnic fractionalization index for 165 countries across all continents. The dataset covers annually the period 1945-2013. The ethnic fractionalization index corresponds to the probability that two randomly drawn individuals within a country are not from the same ethnic group. The new dataset is a natural extension of previous ethnic fractionalization indices and it allows its users to compare developments in ethnic fractionalization over time. The applications of HIEF pertain to the pattern of ethnic diversity across countries and over time.
Visualization of dataset: wisevoter.com/country-rankin…
It’s just an interactive graph that says the U.S., is ranked #68th in the order when it comes to racial diversity.
From Tuesday…
The President and Vice President held a meeting prior to his remarks to mark the 60th Anniversary on the March on Washington. The YouTube is 6 minutes and 20 seconds long.
Their full remarks:
THE PRESIDENT: Kamala and I wanted to convene this incredible group of civil rights leaders for a simple reason: to thank them; and to tell them what they tell us — we know we got a lot more work to do; and also remind them that what they do matters more than I think they even appreciate how — just how consequential it is.
You know, I’ll be speaking about it more this evening, and I’m going to be talking — I’ll be speaking in a longer fora. But the bottom line is that a lot is happening around the things you wouldn’t think would be happening today on the anniversary of the 60 years of the — of the March.
I’ve spoken with the governor and the mayor and Black community leaders in Jacksonville, Florida. The sheriff, who’s an African American. I spent a significant amount of time speaking to everyone, including the governor of Florida.
And as I’ve said to the country, we can’t let hate prevail. And it’s on the rise. It’s not — not diminishing.
Silence, I believe — as we’ve all said many times — silence is complicity. We’re not going to remain silent.
And so, we have to act against this hate-fueled violence and this — all that’s happening.
And, by the way, almost five years to the day that five young Blacks were killed in Jacksonville — I think it was earlier — at the — at a gun — not a gun shop — a store there doing kids toys.
And — but, you know, we have to speak out that there is a whole group of extreme people trying to erase history — trying to walk away from — I mean, the idea that we’re sitting here — I never thought that I’d be president, let alone be president and having the discussion on why books are being banned in American schools.
And — and, you know, as an administration, we’re going to continue the march forward — jobs and freedom that we have worked so hard for — this group has worked harder than anybody for.
And we’re going to get it done. So, I want to thank the group for their leadership and their partnership. And I want to turn this over to the Vice President for a few minutes, and then we’ll get moving.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President. Our country was founded on many noble principles, including “E pluribus unum,” “Out of many, one.” And to live up to those ideals, I think, at this moment in time, requires moral clarity on behalf of every American about what is at stake right now.
The vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us. Yet, there are those who are intentionally trying to divide us as a nation. And I believe each of us has a duty — a duty to not allow factions to sever our unity. Our diversity is our strength, and our unity is our power as a nation.
And I do believe that we must be guided by knowing that we have so much more in common than what separates us. We must be committed to building communities, building coalitions, understanding that is how we strengthen ourselves as a nation.
And the members of the King family are here. Ambassador Andy Young is here. I’m going to, if I may, for the children of Coretta Scott King, paraphrase something she said, which is that the fight for civil rights, for justice, for equality must be fought and won with each generation.
We have Yolanda King here, who epitomizes that understanding that it is incumbent on each of us at this moment in time in our country to stand for the sake of unity and foundational principles that out of many, we are one.
Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
White House.gov. 08/28/2023.
Q: Mr. President, as we are in this moment of hate, you have laws, you have policies, you have executive orders. Mr. President, how to you prevent this hate? Is it a hard issue? And how do you intend to stop this hate that you just said was must stop, sir?
By talking directly to the American — by talking directly to the American people, because I think the vast majority of the American people agree with this table. But we got — we have to understand: This is serious.
I said a little earlier when I came in and sat down: I think this is as serious a potential turning point for the negative as it was when — the turning point for the positive when your dad organized that march. I really think this is a — this is a critical time.
We have groups — a min- — significant minority — that — but I think they want to change the direction that we’ve been working on so hard and making such significant progress on for so long. And we can’t let it happen. We just have to speak to it, is my view.
Thank you.
White House.gov. 08/28/2023.
Q: Sir, do you plan to travel to Jacksonville? Have you spoken with any of the families of the victims?
The last — this is the last thing I’ll speak to and I’ll get this moving. I’ve spoken to the — I’ve — the authorities in Jacksonville, and he — I even spoke to the governor as well last night for some time — all — all folks.
And right now, I was at — I asked for the — whether or not it’s appropriate for the locale — local people to contact the families. Two of them are prepared to be contacted. One does not want to be contacted. I’m letting this just — let things settle because, you know, everybody deals with profound loss in a different way.
And it’s important that — I know from experience it’s important to try to do it in a way that is most helpful and eases the anxiety the most. So, I haven’t spoken to them yet.
Thank you.
White House.gov. 08/28/2023.
Back to School Tweet
From Monday…
This is an Open Thread.
