Published: October 2018

Hands off the Medicare donut hole deal

Consumer Action joined a coalition of over 40 advocates in calling on Congress to reject any measures that would increase prescription drug costs for consumers, including rolling back the provisions in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 that make brand-name prescription drugs more affordable for people with Medicare—specifically the 70% discount required from pharmaceutical companies in the donut hole.

The average older American takes 4.5 brand name prescription drugs on a chronic basis, the prices of which have been routinely rising at a rate that outpaces inflation for the last decade. Every day, people with Medicare face impossible choices between purchasing the medicines they need and being able to afford other necessities of life, like paying the rent or the mortgage and putting food on the table. Lessening beneficiary prescription drug affordability by rescinding the BBA’s donut hole changes—only to provide a $4 billion windfall to the pharmaceutical industry—would be a deeply concerning retreat from the progress that Congress achieved in enacting those reforms earlier this year.

Lead Organization

Public Citizen

Other Organizations

Public Citizen | Families USA | Medicare Rights Center | Social Security Works | Aging Life Care Association | AIDS Healthcare Foundation | Alliance for Retired Americans | American Federation of Teachers | American Medical Student Association | American Muslims Health Professionals | B'nai B'rith International | Business Initiative for Health Policy | Center for American Progress | Center for Medicare Advocacy | Center for Popular Democracy Action | Chronic Illness Advocacy & Awareness Group | Community Catalyst | Consumer Action | Consumers Union | Gray Panthers | Health Care for America Now | International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers | Just Care | Justice in Aging | Labor Campaign for Single Payer | Latinos for a Secure Retirement | National Association of Area Agencies on Aging | National Association of Social Workers | National Center for Health Research | National | Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare | National Health Law Program | National Organization for Women | National Physicians Alliance | National Women's Health Network | NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice | People Demanding Action | People of Faith for Access to Medicines | People's Action | Physicians for a National Health Program | Raising Women's Voices for the Health Care We Need | Service Employees International Union (SEIU) | THE BETES | Treatment Action Group | UNITE HERE | Voices for Progress

More Information

For more information, pleaes visit Public Citizen.

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Hands off the Medicare donut hole deal   (civil-society-donut-hole-discount-letter-october-2018.pdf)