The passage of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) made major structural changes to the way Medicare covers and pays for prescription drugs. The law includes changes that will greatly improve patient prescription drug affordability by eliminating seniors’ cost-sharing obligations on vaccines, reducing out-of-pocket costs for insulin, and capping annual out-of-pocket costs at $2,000.
However, these improvements in patient affordability could be offset if other IRA provisions deter access to medicines best suited to meet an individual’s needs.