Scoop: Health care experts, seniors want Trump to “pause” the Inflation Reduction Act
"The IRA’s excesses make it a natural target for DOGE, which should prioritize clawing back billions in green energy subsidies the Biden team is trying to shovel out the door," Joe Grogan wrote...
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is under renewed scrutiny as Republicans prepare to take full control of the government, and health care policy experts are cautioning against potential GOP efforts to “fix” the controversial legislation, they told the Washington Reporter.
Groups like Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) Action, which advocate for seniors, warn that the IRA could jeopardize access to medicine for both low-income seniors and seniors living on a fixed income, like Social Security, while devastating independent pharmacies in rural or underserved areas.
AMAC Action’s recent polling of Americans age 55 and over found widespread bipartisan opposition to IRA provisions such as the narrowing of prescription drug plans and its “heavy penalties imposed on pharmaceutical companies for rejecting government-set prices or opting out of negotiations.”
The IRA’s raid of Medicare funds to pay for green energy was the most unpopular measure, AMAC Action’s polling found. There is “overwhelming support for reallocating IRA funds back to Medicare. 85% of respondents agreed that Congress should redirect funds currently used for green energy subsidies and other initiatives to reduce Medicare costs for seniors,” AMAC Action noted.
Terry Wilcox, the co-founder of Patients Rising, told the Reporter that “the Inflation Reduction Act is not a health care bill; it’s not even in the name. Did we need this entire bill to cap seniors out of pocket costs at the pharmacy counter at $2,000? No. But seniors are grateful for the relief. The IRA took the one thing patients are still fighting for — lowering costs at the pharmacy counter — and repealed it. They shelved the rebate pass through rule indefinitely which is really the only thing that would bring millions of Americans immediate relief.”
Other health care experts are concerned about the Biden administration’s Medicare plunder.
“Biden and the Democrats raided Medicare for green energy subsidies and America’s seniors are paying the price,” Joe Grogan, President Donald Trump’s former Director of the Domestic Policy Council, wrote. “In 2022, Democrats rammed through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) with major changes to Medicare’s prescription drug reimbursement — previously an area of bipartisanship — without a single Republican vote.”
“Put another way, Biden cut benefits from people with a median income of $36,000 per year to subsidize cars purchased by individuals who earn five times as much,” Grogan continued. “This $240 billion raid on Medicare would be shocking if they hadn’t done it before; Democrats cut $450 billion to $716 billion from Medicare to fund the Affordable Care Act.”
Sean Spicer, another Trump administration alumni, recently tweeted a photo of AMAC Action’s ad campaign, called Pause the IRA; the movement had an electronic billboard circling Capitol Hill.
“The IRA’s excesses make it a natural target for DOGE, which should prioritize clawing back billions in green energy subsidies the Biden team is trying to shovel out the door like gold bars being thrown off the Titanic,” Grogan wrote. “[Elon] Musk and [Vivek] Ramaswamy could also pare back the size of government by unwinding the office created to execute Biden’s price setting agenda, at a cost to the taxpayers of $3 billion. Apart from DOGE’s efforts and until such time as lawmakers can repeal it, the president should press ‘pause’ on the IRA.”