The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is helping people with Medicare afford their medications, including the 2.1 million Asian, 5.8 million Black, and 5.3 million Latino Part D enrollees. These fact sheets review existing research to present the projected impacts of key IRA Medicare drug-related provisions for these populations.
Our review finds that Asian, Black, and Latino enrollees are projected to benefit from the IRA drug-related provisions. The IRA provisions discussed in the fact sheets include: 1) expanding the low-income subsidy program, 2) capping insulin to $35 a month, 3) eliminating out-of-pocket costs for recommended adult vaccines covered under Part D, 4) redesigning the Part D benefit program, including eliminating cost-sharing in the catastrophic coverage phase in 2024 and imposing a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap that begins in 2025 and is indexed to inflation annually thereafter, and 5) negotiating for selected drugs for initial price applicability year 2026.
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Related Products:
- Insulin Affordability IRA Data Point
- Report to Congress on the Affordability of Insulin
- IRA Elimination of Part D Covered Vaccine Cost-Sharing
- Out-of-Pocket Expenditures for Drugs Selected for Negotiation under the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program
**ALERT – ASPE is in the process of revising the race and ethnicity data in some of the ASPE publications that are cited in these Fact Sheets. Therefore, some of the race and ethnicity estimates presented in these Fact Sheets and the cited ASPE publications may not match.
Specifically, the following publications are in the process of being updated:
- Insulin Affordability and the Inflation Reduction Act: Medicare Beneficiary Savings by State and Demographics
- Inflation Reduction Act Research Series: Medicare Part D Enrollee Savings from Elimination of Vaccine Cost-Sharing
- Medicare Part D Enrollee Out-of-Pocket Spending: Recent Trends and Potential Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act
These publications currently use race and ethnicity information that CMS obtains from the Social Security Administration (SSA). This information has been shown to substantially undercount the number of Hispanic and Asian American/Pacific Islander beneficiaries. To address this undercount, CMS has developed the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) race and ethnicity recoding algorithm, commonly known as “RTI race.” ASPE is in the process of revising these publications using the RTI race measure.
The Fact Sheets present updated race and ethnicity estimates using the RTI Race measure.
For further reading on race and ethnicity information in Medicare data, see: Filice, Clara E. MD, MPH, MHS; Joynt, Karen E. MD, MPH. Examining Race and Ethnicity Information in Medicare Administrative Data. Medical Care 55(12):p e170-e176, December 2017. DOI: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000000608. https://journals.lww.com/lww-medicalcare/abstract/2017/12000/examining_race_and_ethnicity_information_in.26.aspx