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Everyday Health
Your Prescriptions May Soon Get Cheaper
By By Lisa Rapaport. Fact-Checked,
6 hours ago
The negotiated prices will save money for people with Medicare Part D insurance. Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock
Key Takeaways
Medicare has negotiated price cuts of up to 79 percent for 10 medications taken by millions of Americans.
The drugs include blood thinners and insulin injections for diabetes.
The new price reductions will take effect in 2026.
Medicare has for the first time negotiated prescription drug discounts that will slash costs for 10 medicines that are taken by millions of Americans.
The discounts are expected to save Medicare about $100 billion over 10 years, including an estimated $6 billion in 2026, the first year the price reductions take effect, said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in a statement . Patients will also save an estimated $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs over the first year of the discounts, HHS said.
"Americans pay too much for their prescription drugs," HHS secretary Xavier Becerra said in the statement. "That makes today's announcement historic. For the first time ever, Medicare negotiated directly with drug companies and the American people are better off for it."
Discounts will cover some of the most expensive and most frequently dispensed drugs in the Medicare program, HHS said. The new prices will go into effect for people with Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage beginning January 1, 2026.
In the first year that discounts take effect, Medicare's prices for the 10 medicines will be from 38 percent to 79 percent cheaper than they were in 2023, according to HHS.
The 2026 negotiated monthly prices for each drug, along with the discount off 2023 prices, are as follows:
Januvia For diabetes ; negotiated price $113 (79 percent discount)
NovoLog and Fiasp Products For diabetes; negotiated price $119 (76 percent discount)
Xarelto For blood clots, coronary artery or peripheral artery disease; negotiated price $197 (62 percent discount)
Eliquis For blood clots; negotiated price $231 (56 percent discount)
Entresto For heart failure, negotiated price $295 (53 percent discount)
Imbruvica For blood cancers; negotiated price $9,319 (38 percent discount)
Combined, these medicines accounted for about $56 billion in total Medicare spending, or about 20 percent of the total gross Medicare Part D spending in 2023, HHS said.
From 2018 to 2022, total Part D gross spending on these medicines had more than doubled, from about $20 billion to about $46 billion. In 2022, patients enrolled in Medicare Part D spent a total of $3.4 billion out-of-pocket on these drugs.
How Much Can Patients Expect to Save?
How much individual patients save with the new discounts will depend on the exact type of Medicare Part D drug benefits they have. Monthly premiums, flat-fee copayments for drugs, and coinsurance fees that are a percentage of drug costs are among the out-of-pocket costs for patients that can vary from one plan to the next.
Starting next year, Medicare Part D enrollees will have a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap on their prescription drug costs, eliminating costs to patients who run up prescription drug bills after this cap, HHS said.
Medicare also plans to discount up to an additional 15 prescription drugs starting in 2027, followed by another 15 medicines in 2028, and up to 20 more drugs each year after that, HHS said.
Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy . We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Lisa Rapaport is a journalist with more than 20 years of experience on the health beat as a writer and editor. She holds a master's degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and spent a year as a Knight-Wallace journalism fellow at the University of Michigan. Her work has appeared in dozens of local and national media outlets, including Reuters, Bloomberg, WNYC, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times , Scientific American , San Jose Mercury News , Oakland Tribune , Huffington Post, Yahoo! News, The Sacramento Bee , and The Buffalo News . See full bio See Our Editorial Policy Meet Our Health Expert Network
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