Biden, Harris and Hill Dems tout huge Medicare price negotiation milestone
Plus: Why the first-ever White House creator economy conference is such a big deal.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome back to Once Upon a Hill. As I mentioned this morning, the Biden administration announced it reached agreements with all of the participating manufacturers on newly negotiated lower prices on ten of the most prescribed and expensive drugs.
The milestone is made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law days after every congressional Democrat voted for it, every Republican in the House and Senate voted against it, and Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote.
Several congressional Democrats celebrated the announcement, including Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader who negotiated the IRA behind the scenes with Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.V.) on a scaled-back version of the Build Back Better Act focused on tax reform to offset investments in health care and clean energy.
“Today’s announcement is a huge, long-sought-after breakthrough for American families,” Schumer said in a statement. “For decades, the American people wanted fair negotiations with Big Pharma, and because of the IRA, they got it.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees federal taxation, said in a statement that the new, lower prices for prescription drugs marked the first step in a seismic shift in the relationship between Big Pharma, taxpayers, and seniors who need affordable prescription drugs.
“While Trump and his Republican allies in Congress want to leave Big Pharma in charge so seniors pay higher prices, Democrats have delivered lower costs, more consumer protections, and accountability of drug companies that raise prices with impunity,” Wyden added.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said that no American should ever have to choose between the cost of housing, putting food on the table, having clothes on their back or paying for life-saving medication.
The top House Democrat also warned that the same Republicans who voted against empowering Medicare to negotiate lower prices would vote to repeal the IRA, a proposal in Project 2025 that would increase costs for as many as 18.5 million seniors and others with Medicare.
“House Democrats will never let extreme MAGA Republicans turn back the clock and raise prices for hardworking American taxpayers,” Jeffries added.
Richie Neal, the top Democrat on the House’s tax-writing committee and dean of the New England House delegations, characterized the persistence of congressional Democrats, President Biden’s vision and Vice President Harris’s tie-breaking vote as the catalysts for today’s breakthrough.
“It’s commonsense: Strengthening our health care system while saving taxpayers money,” Neal said. “There’s much more to come.”
The new prices will slash the list price of drugs that treat heart, disease, cancer, diabetes, blood clots and more by 38 to 79 percent. Eliquis, which was used by almost four million Medicare enrollees in 2023 to prevent and treat blood clots, will cost $231 for a 30-day supply in 2026—down from $521 last year. The 843,000 Medicare enrollees who saw a $527 list price for the diabetes drug Januvia will pay no more than $113 when the negotiated price goes into effect. And Farxiga, a drug that treats heart failure, chronic kidney disease as well as diabetes, will cost 68 percent less now that the government negotiated a new $178.50 price tag that’s almost $380 less than the $556 list price.
All told, American taxpayers are expected to save $6 billion as a result of Medicare price negotiation by 2026 and Medicare enrollees will save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs. And additional drugs will be negotiated each year, including up to 15 additional drugs covered under Medicare Part D for negotiation in 2025, up to an additional 15 Part B and Part D drugs in 2026, and up to 20 drugs every year after that. (Medicare Part D is a voluntary prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare that helps cover the cost of prescription drugs and recommended vaccines.)
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said HHS met with patients, providers and pharmacists to inform the negotiating process. He said the drug companies voluntarily participated and had the opportunity to present their own proposed prices and to make counteroffers throughout the negotiation. After substantial back-and-forth, the government accepted a company’s offer or vice versa.
“I had the privilege to work closely with our HHS team and oversee the negotiations,” Becerra told reporters on Wednesday ahead of the announcement. The negotiations were comprehensive. They were intense. It took both sides to reach a good goal.”
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said HHS achieved all its goals.
“We engaged in a genuine back and forth with participating drug manufacturers and reached agreement on all selected drugs,” she added. “We’re helping to support access to these life-saving treatments and we are getting a better deal for people with Medicare and the Medicare program.”
House Republican leadership described Medicare price negotiation among the most egregious provisions in the IRA that have done untold damage to the American health care system.
“Patients are seeing fewer choices, higher prices, and fewer cures, while the American pharmaceutical industry—which currently leads the world in the development of new medicines—is now in jeopardy of losing its competitive advantage on the rest of the world,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said in a joint statement. “Make no mistake, price fixing has failed in every sector and in every country where it has ever been tried.”
That’s the case Big Pharma has failed to make in every court case against Medicare price negotiation that has been tossed since the IRA’s passage, as recently as earlier this month with a federal judge rejected a lawsuit from the US Chamber of Commerce challenging the provision. But the goal of many of these lower court challenges is to pave the way for the Supreme Court to take up one of the cases in hopes the conservative supermajority repeals the provision as unconstitutional.
In addition to Medicare price negotiation, the IRA also capped out-of-pocket prescription drug costs in Medicare Part D to $2,000 starting next January. The law also capped co-pays for insulin to $35 for Medicare recipients and eliminated costs altogether on vaccines for older adults. Drug companies that raise prices faster than the rate of inflation will now pay a price-gouging penalty as well.
President Biden and Vice President Harris visited Prince George’s Community College this afternoon to mark the occasion in front of 2,300 who chanted, “Thank you, Joe,” when he spoke about the lower prescription drug prices.
They booed when Biden mentioned Project 2025 then cheered when he said, “Let me tell you what our Project 2025 is: Beat the hell out of them.”
Why the first White House creator economy conference is a big deal
“I’m looking for a job.”
That’s what President Biden told 100 digital creators and industry professionals yesterday after he took a selfie with them in the Indian Treaty Room a couple of hours into the first-ever White House Creator Economy Conference.
“The fact is that you are the future. You are the future,” he said while calling the assembled group the source of news for his grandkids. “[There] are more people who want to go into your business than any other these days.”
The data backs the president up.
One estimate from a White House official found that 50 million people worldwide work as content creators and that the creator economy contributes up to $250 billion in revenue to the global gross domestic product. Forecasts project that the number will grow to $480 billion by 2027.
Taylor Lorenz, a columnist at The Washington Post covering technology and online culture and the author of Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet who attended the conference, told me on Tuesday night that the event represented a notable step in the maturation of the industry.
“Obviously, politicians have been leveraging content creators to put out their policy messages for a while,” she told me. “We had Biden using content creators to push to Build Back Better stuff and the [COVID-19] vaccines. Obviously, [former President Barack] Obama worked with YouTubers to push the Affordable Care Act. [Former President Donald] Trump had his social media summit. But they were mostly viewed as marketing tools. What I think is notable now is the White House really seems to be looking at them from the standpoint of an industry and a labor issue.”
The invited creators work, produce and publish content across the digital media landscape. They discussed topics such as artificial intelligence, mental health and pay equity with administration officials from the Treasury Department and White House Domestic Policy Council, Office of Science and Technology Policy and Office of Digital Strategy.
The conference was part of the administration’s ongoing work to engage digital creators and meet Americans where they are. Officials at the highest level of this White House have engaged creators extensively, hosting regular virtual and in-person briefings with digital creators on policy issues, State of the Union watch events for creators at the White House, and, last year, the first-ever White House Holiday Party for digital creators.
Additionally, the administration publicly supports a creator’s choice to use AI in ways that support their work and has said that workers should enjoy the gains and opportunities of AI as it is deployed. The White House official pointed to President Biden’s landmark AI executive order he signed last October that directed actions across government that support creators and workers—including ensuring that creators who use AI to help develop intellectual property remain eligible for patents.
In addition, the Biden administration has made it a priority to protect young people from the harms that can be associated with social media and online platforms. From creating interagency task forces to launching a Center of Excellence to calling on Congress to pass major bipartisan legislation, the White House says its focus is on improving kids’ privacy, safety, and health online, particularly against the backdrop of an unprecedented youth mental health crisis.
Lorenz said that while it was significant that White House officials acknowledged that the creator economy is an industry that the government has failed to track or catalog, it remains to be seen whether creator priorities will carry onto the next administration once Biden’s term ends in January.
It’s also unclear if and when Congress will act to pass policies that enable creators to be noticed and paid for the brilliance they bring to the world.
“I think Congress needs to get with the picture. We see Congress just completely unable to grasp the current technology landscape. They try to pass all of this tech regulation that ultimately harms creators,” she said. “[Creators] are the new media, but they’re working without any sort of labor protections. They’re doing this platform-mediated work that frankly, Congress wants to make harder. The laws that they continue to push around technology are just so shortsighted and ultimately harm the people who are forced to work on the backs of these platforms.”
Lorenz told me that the lack of institutional support is due in part to a broader misunderstanding among non-creators about creative work.
“I think a lot of people really just don’t recognize the labor that goes into creating content. Fundamentally, this is a new media and entertainment landscape,” she said. “These people are independent media. They have their own independent media companies. A lot of them are doing the work of dozens of people on their own. And I just think it's really important that we start to look at this from a labor perspective.”
There’s reason for optimism, though, as more new members arrive in Washington with the familiarity required to advocate for creators.
“The creative economy generates over $6 billion for California and is a critical economic engine,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), whose district encompasses several neighborhoods west and southwest of Downtown Los Angeles, the central business district of the city known for its iconic arts and fashion scenes. “It is incredibly appropriate for the White House to acknowledge this sector and treat them with the significance they deserve.”
Kamlager-Dove, as I wrote for Supercreator last September, cut her teeth in creative environments prior to entering public service and is part of a class of first-term House progressives who bring creative experience and an appreciation of the arts, entertainment and digital media to the halls of Congress.
Meanwhile, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), the first Gen-Z member of Congress, introduced a bill in April that would create four new grant programs for emerging creators who are dedicating their lives to their craft so they can cover costs for equipment, marketing and travel costs.
Robert Garcia, another first-term House Democrat whose district is located entirely within Los Angeles County, launched the Popular Arts Caucus last summer to work with his House and Senate colleagues to uplift creators, creative content, the future of streaming and issues around AI and the creative arts.
More than 200 creators will descend upon Chicago next week to cover the Democratic National Convention and the DNC Committee will provide hundreds more with remote access to downloadable content and resources so they can share convention experiences with their viewers.
Credentialed creators at the convention will have access to workspaces and the chance to interact with surrogates, similar to traditional print and online journalists. They’ll be able to capture and create content at various events across Chicago, offering their audiences an attendee’s perspective. And for those covering the four-day event remotely, the DNCC will provide logistical assistance tailored to creators’ needs, enabling them to connect with surrogates, share the convention experience, and access convention video clips.
None of this felt possible when I launched Supercreator before the pandemic when digital creators, especially those of color, were still marginalized from access to the amount of political stock that matched the economic and cultural capital generated.
And though I’ll head to Chi-Town this weekend to cover the DNC as a member of the traditional print and online media, I couldn’t be prouder of the progress creators have spawned for themselves in a few short years. But as President Biden reminded the creators at the end of his talk: To whom much is given, much is expected.
“You’re tired of hearing me talk about it, but I talk about these inflection points in history, how history gets changed by mostly technology, and it changes it drastically. The innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in this room is what makes America America,” Biden said. “The biggest thing you got going for you, and I hope you keep it, is you’re trusted. You’re trusted. And it makes the difference.”
Do you have questions about the election? Drop me a line at michael@onceuponahill.com or send me a message below to get in touch and I’ll find the answers.