Read Protect Our Care’s New Report Here: (Web, PDF)
Washington, D.C. — Today, Governor Lujan Grisham (D-NM), Richard Fiesta from Alliance for Retired Americans, and health care storyteller Mary Jane Steinhagen joined Protect Our Care to discuss how Medicare is under attack by Donald Trump and his Republican allies. During the call, Protect Our Care released a new report outlining how the MAGA Project 2025 agenda will raise drug prices and premiums, ban drug negotiation, and slash benefits for millions of seniors. MAGA Republicans want to slash tens of billions from Medicare to pay for more tax breaks for the wealthy.
Medicare Open Enrollment kicked off on October 15, and millions of seniors have begun selecting their plans for 2025. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, insulin copays are capped at $35 per month, recommended vaccines are free, and total out-of-pocket drug costs are capped at $2,000 per year. Next year, new savings from Medicare drug price negotiation will take effect. These new benefits will save people thousands of dollars a year on their prescription drugs, but MAGA Republicans want to roll all of this back and hike costs for seniors and people with disabilities nationwide.
“The Republicans’ plan would take away access to lifesaving treatments, leaving families completely stuck across America,” said Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM). “It’s outrageous, and the contrast could not be clearer. One party, the Democrats, want health care, but Republicans want no rights for any American related to their own health care independence. That’s the choice in this election.”
“Americans pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world. That stopped with the Inflation Reduction Act and Kamala Harris’s vote,” said Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of Alliance for Retired Americans. “But we can’t celebrate for too much longer, because MAGA Republicans and Project 2025 would take us back. We’ve already seen this movie before, because the Trump administration proposed cutting Medicare in every budget that he had.”
“Right after I retired, in December 2019, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Breast Cancer. As a senior living with advanced cancer, the new Medicare benefits in the Inflation Reduction Act are saving my life and removing the enormous financial burden of high-cost drugs,” said Mary Jane Steinhagen, Minnesota storyteller. “Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, out-of-pocket drug costs were capped at $3,300 this year and will be capped at $2,000 next year. In other words, next year I’ll save more than $10,000.”
“There is so much at stake for health care in the upcoming election,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “The same Republican lawmakers who unanimously voted against lower drug prices are fighting to give tax breaks to big drug companies and their CEOs. While Democrats are working to expand the Inflation Reduction Act’s prescription drug savings, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans want to go backwards and hike costs and rip away benefits from seniors on Medicare.”