Medicare drug plan could backfire on Hispanic seniors

Lawmakers plan to use their multitrillion-dollar reconciliation bill to make the biggest change to Medicare in generations. They want the government to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies, to save hundreds of billions of dollars and make patients better off.

They’re only half right. A closer look reveals that these wouldn’t be negotiations in any meaningful sense of the word. Lawmakers intend to simply dictate prices they’re willing to pay for medicines.

That would save money at the expense of patients’ health. Many countries employ this same approach. Their officials achieve savings by rationing access to lifesaving medicines.

Seniors, especially older Hispanics, would be hardest hit by this rationing, since they disproportionately rely on Medicare prescription drug plans to stay healthy. 

We don’t have to imagine what this limited access would look like: we already see it abroad. Almost 90% of the new drugs developed between 2011 and 2017 are available in the United States. But in Britain and France, where government determines which drugs should be covered, only 67% and 48% are available, respectively. Where would you choose to be a patient?