NASHVILLE — Biden administration officials say hundreds of thousands of Tennessee and Georgia seniors on Medicare will avoid large increases in health care costs starting next year after sprawling legislation that extends subsidies for insurance policies for three years and caps insulin costs at $35 per month was signed into law last week.
Medicare recipients can expect more savings under another provision that allows the federal health care program for the first time to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies on some of their most expensive drugs starting in 2026.
Other provisions in the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act require Medicare Part D drug plans to begin offering improved financial protections against catastrophic costs starting in 2024, with a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap for enrollees taking effect in 2025. That alone will benefit about 37,000 Tennesseans and some 46,000 Georgians, according to estimates by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Starting in 2023, the legislation will require zero cost-sharing for vaccines for Medicare Part D beneficiaries. While Medicare Part B covers vaccines such as the flu vaccine at no cost-sharing, patients receiving vaccines covered under Medicare Part D, such as the vaccine for shingles, must pay for a portion of the cost out of pocket. That ends starting in 2023 for Medicare Part D beneficiaries, according to a Department of Health and Human Services fact sheet.