Photo: The Nevadan/El Nevadense
Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) on Tuesday hosted a conversation with Nevada seniors and health care leaders on the topic of prescription drug costs and the benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act.
“I’ve been a diabetic for much longer than I’ve lived here [in Las Vegas]” said David Berman, a retired lawyer invited to the conversation along with a federal government Medicare official, a local doctor, and another senior.
“This is one of two types of insulin that I take,” Berman shared, raising an instrument that looked like a marker. “You’ve got the one for every meal and then the one that you take when you go to bed. I was the immediate beneficiary of the drop in insulin rates.”
“I was paying $70 a month; and starting this year, $35 a month. That adds up! I am so pleased that the President has carried the ball on this,” Berman shared with excitement at the Roseman University campus in Henderson.
Senator Rosen supported passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which implemented a $35 monthly cap on out-of-pocket insulin costs for seniors on Medicare Part D. The cap went into effect in January 2023 and the law is now helping Nevadans like Berman save money on life-saving medication.
“The fact that no one has to pay more than $35 a month for a covered insulin product, if this had been in place in 2020, that would have saved people in Nevada $4.7 million,” said Dr. Meena Seshamani of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “That’s real money for real people.”
“I want to use my bully pulpit to get the word out to people about the benefits that are available to them, to make their lives better,” said Senator Rosen.
Further good news for Nevadans was relayed in this meeting.
“Starting in 2025, nobody with Medicare prescription drug coverage will pay more than $2,000 a year — first time ever, in the history of the [Medicare] program,” Dr. Seshamani said.
That annual out-of-pocket spending cap is also the result of the Inflation Reduction Act.
She added: “What financial relief that brings to people, especially seniors, people with disabilities, people on fixed incomes, and for Nevada, we estimate it’s about $67 million that will be saved for people in this state. Nineteen million people in the country will save money because of this.”
The Inflation Reduction Act also made all vaccines free for seniors on Medicare Part D and included a measure allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices on 10 commonly-used medications. The lower prices will go into effect in 2026.
Rosen was elected to the Senate in 2018 defeating former Republican Senator Dean Heller.
Earlier this year, Rosen announced that she will seek reelection in 2024.
Currently, there are eight republican candidates in the race: Dr. Jeff Gunter, the former ambassador to Iceland under the Trump Administration; Barry Lindemann, a former nonpartisan candidate who ran for Senate in 2022; William Conrad, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who also ran for Senate in 2022; Tony Grady, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2022; and Ronda Kennedy, Jim Marchant, Stephanie Phillips and Sam Brown — according to the Review Journal.
Brown came in second to Adam Laxalt in Nevada’s 2022 GOP Senate primary. Brown is backed by the national Republican establishment for 2024, according to the Nevada Current. Brown, recently attended the Nevada Right to Life gala with his wife, but did not post about it — as reported by the Current.
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