The Biden-Harris Drug Reforms Also Say Big Things About Elections

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Thursday was a pretty big day for health care policy — and, as it turns out, for object lessons in the importance of elections.

That was the day the Department of Health and Human Services announced it had secured agreements from pharmaceutical manufacturers to reduce the prices of 10 expensive drugs that millions of Medicare beneficiaries take to treat blood clots, diabetes and other serious conditions

The agreements were the result of a monthslong negotiation process, the first in what will now become an annual ritual thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act . That law, widely considered President Joe Biden’s signature legislative accomplishment, included several other reforms to lower drug prices. These changes should add up to real, tangible savings for some seniors and people with disabilities, into the hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of dollars a year.

The Inflation Reduction Act celebrates its second anniversary today. That’s one reason for the timing of the announcement.

Another is that the Democratic National Convention takes place next week, the election just 10 weeks after that. And Vice President-slash-Democratic nominee Kamala Harris wants voters to connect this win to her candidacy, reminding them she was a big supporter of the Inflation Reduction Act. In 2022, she literally cast the decisive, tie-breaking vote for it while serving in her constitutional role as presiding officer in the Senate.

Harris also wants voters to know she’s eager to do more. On Friday, Harris proposed a series of reforms that would strengthen the government’s ability to lower drug prices ― by, for example, expanding the Inflation Reduction