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How the Inflation Reduction Act Reduces Health Care Costs

August 15, 2022
CAP American Progress ARTICLE   Nicole Rapfogel & Emily Gee

The Inflation Reduction Act’s health insurance subsidies and drug pricing reforms will improve health care affordability for Americans.

The Inflation Reduction Act, when passed by the House of Representatives and signed into law by President Joe Biden, will give a lifeline to people struggling with health costs by providing much-needed financial relief for the health coverage and medications they need to survive and thrive. The bill improves health care and affordability by:

  • Empowering Medicare to negotiate with drug companies to lower prices
  • Preventing drug companies from raising Medicare prices in excess of inflation
  • Setting a new cap for Medicare beneficiaries on annual out-of-pocket costs for drugs, plus a $35 monthly cap on insulin cost sharing
  • Providing more generous subsidies for health insurance marketplace coverage, thereby granting financial help to middle-class families facing high premiums and guaranteeing that lower-income people have a $0 premium plan option
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