Biden Officials Stave Off Sticker Shock on Medicare Drug Premiums

The Biden administration on Friday announced that next year older Americans would face lower average monthly premiums for their prescription drugs, a feat achieved by pouring billions of dollars into subsidies for insurers. The move avoided a potential minefield of higher costs affecting the nation’s most stalwart voters weeks before the presidential election.

In a savvy response to the specter of huge spikes in costs, administration officials decided months ago to funnel money from a Medicare trust fund to offset rate increases that could have cost millions of people hundreds of dollars more a year.

Premiums would have gone up largely because of a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket spending, and other changes to Medicare under President Biden’s signature legislative accomplishment, the Inflation Reduction Act.

Higher premiums could have been politically damaging to the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, and threatened one of the Biden-Harris administration’s most important talking points — its success in lowering patients’ drug costs.

But the reality is that when patients pay less at the pharmacy counter, somebody has to foot the bill.

Republicans have sharply criticized the administration’s offset plan, known as a demonstration, since it was announced in July, calling it a nakedly political ploy meant to sway votes and saying it would offer only temporary relief to older people.