Political Quotes

“A couple days ago, Medicare beneficiaries all across America received very welcome news. For 2023, Medicare announced that the part B premiums, which are deducted from seniors' Social Security checks, will actually be reduced by $6 a month. That is the first time in 11 years that the Medicare program has actually cut the premiums that erode month by month Social Security checks. There is a reason for this, which is that last year there was a spike in terms of the part B premiums. It was driven by the fact that a new drug, Aduhelm, was approved just about the same time the actuaries were calculating the part B premiums. Aduhelm's cost, when it was initially approved by FDA, was about $58,000 per patient. That one medication resulted in half of the increase last year in terms of Medicare part B premiums. There was a hue and cry about the cost of that drug after the new premium had kicked in. They cut the price from $58,000 per patient to $26,000. Medicare also limited the use of that drug in terms of experimental, controlled settings because it was so brand new. Unfortunately, the premium had already kicked in, and a number of us were working with the Department of Health and Human Services saying that the premium should be adjusted because it was based on data which had been overtaken by events.…”