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‘An Arm and a Leg’: The New Cap on Medicare Drug Costs

By Dan Weissmann

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On a Sunday afternoon in August, health services researcher Stacie Dusetzina was sitting alone in her office at Vanderbilt University,Ìý.

The U.S. Senate was voting on the Inflation Reduction Act, which among other things is designed to ensure that people on Medicare pay less for expensive drugs.

It’s a big deal. Lots of seniors pay $10,000 a year or more for drugs or do without lifesaving treatment; once the new law kicks in, it sets an out-of-pocket limit of $2,000 a year. 

Dusetzina and her colleagues have spent years making the case for this change, documenting the ways current policies leave people in the lurch. 

The pharmaceutical industry fought this change tooth and nail — for decades. Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KHN, takes listeners on a journey back to the late 1980s, when Congress learned the cost of messing with Big Pharma. 

“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of KHN and Public Road Productions.

To keep in touch with “An Arm and a Leg,” . You can also follow the show on Ìý²¹²Ô»åÌý. And if you’ve got stories to tell about the health care system, the producers .

To hear all KHN podcasts,Ìýclick here.

And subscribe to “An Arm and a Leg” on , , ,Ìý,Ìýor wherever you listen to podcasts.

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at Â鶹ŮÓÅ—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

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