Medicare Drug Plans Are Getting Better Next Year. Some Will Also Cost More.

By Susan Jaffe | KFF Health News | Special to The OBSERVER(KFF) – When Pam McClure learned she’d save nearly $4,000 on her prescription drugs next year, she said, “it sounded too good to be true.” She and her husband are both retired and live on a “very strict” budget in central North Dakota.By the end of this year, she will have spent almost $6,000 for her medications, including a drug to control her diabetes.McClure, 70, is one of about 3.2 million people with Medicare prescription drug insurance whose out-of-pocket medication costs will be capped at $2,000 in 2025 because of the Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, according to an Avalere/AARP study.“It’s wonderful — oh my gosh. We would actually be able to live,” McClure said. “I might be able to afford fresh fruit in the wintertime.”The IRA, a climate and health care law that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris promote on the campaign trail as one of their administration’s greatest accomplishments, radically redesigned Medicare’s drug benefit, called Part D, which serves about 53 million people 65 and older or with disabilities. The administration estimates that about 18.7 million people will save about $7.4 billion next...