Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) issued the following statement regarding the Biden-Harris administration’s drug price-setting scheme: 

“The Biden-Harris administration’s Inflation Reduction Act is already backfiring—leading to higher list prices for the prescription drugs that seniors rely upon to stay healthy. This scheme is also hampering the research and development of the next treatment or cure for Americans battling diseases, such as cancer. Furthermore, the IRA has driven up Medicare Part D premiums, which the administration is desperately trying to hide by giving away taxpayer dollars to big insurance companies. If this administration was serious about lowering the cost of care, it would support bipartisan solutions, like the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, which passed the House with overwhelming support.” 

The Truth about the IRA: 

Increased Premiums and List Prices for Drugs: 

• Launch prices for new drugs increased 35 percent after the passage of the IRA. 
• Part D premiums have skyrocketed, with a 179 percent increase in plan’s national average monthly bid. As a result, the administration is now spending $5 billion to hide the increased premiums from seniors just for 2025 alone, in addition to the billions already spent in the IRA to try to artificially suppress premium increases. 
• The number of standalone Medicare Part D plans available for seniors to choose from dropped by 11 percent from last year. 

Fewer Treatments and Cures for Patients: 

• As predicted, the IRA is also costing us future cures, with 36 research programs and development of 21 drugs having been discontinued since the passage of the IRA.  

Misguided Policy: 

• Many of these drugs are already steeply discounted through negotiations in the private marketplace, and there is no guarantee seniors will benefit from these prices as plans balance how to structure their formularies. 
• While the administration is touting savings numbers based on 2023 data, the actual savings this policy may produce in 2026 will likely be much lower as more competitors to these products come to market, and privately negotiated rebates for these products would likely have increased. 
• In fact, it is entirely possible the actualized savings from this batch of new set prices in 2026 would be less than the $5 billion of new spending in 2025 to hide the Part D premium increases caused by the IRA. 
• The White House is dishonestly using the products list prices in its savings calculations, which do not reflect what Medicare beneficiaries actually pay. 

Increased Bureaucracy: 

• The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has hired 91 new bureaucrats to set drug prices. 
• The IRA gave HHS three billion in taxpayer dollars to implement the new office in charge of setting prices.