January 29, 2024

The Inflation Reduction Act Is Lowering Rx Costs: State Fact Sheets

In August 2022, Democrats in Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to lower health care and prescription drug costs for older adults, people with disabilities, and families across the Nation. This historic legislation will help millions of Americans who are just one medical emergency away from bankruptcy and millions of others from draining their savings to pay for lifesaving prescription drugs.

Already, provisions from the IRA are lowering costs and improving health care. Starting in January 2023, the IRA capped the cost of insulin for Medicare Part D beneficiaries at $35 a month for certain covered insulin products. The law also will limit Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 per year beginning in 2025, and it instituted a new provision to impose penalties on drug companies that hike up prices in Medicare above the rate of inflation. Thanks to the IRA, adults on Medicare Part D have access to covered vaccines, such as shingles, Tdap, and COVID-19, at no cost, and the law expands cost-sharing assistance for low-income people with Medicare. Lastly, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the first 10 prescription drugs eligible for negotiation, with additional prescription drugs becoming eligible for negotiation in the coming years.

See below for more about the law’s impacts for each state:

State Fact Sheets:

• Alabama

• Alaska

• Arizona

• Arkansas

• California

• Colorado

• Connecticut

• Delaware

• Florida

• Georgia