The IRA

There's a lot cooking in those three little letters

No, not the Irish Republican Army or even a retirement savings plan. This IRA is the Inflation Reduction Act, dismissed for a time by Republicans whose political orthodoxy wouldn’t allow them to acknowledge the populist, common sense vehicle that included money for climate change studies and actions, and the lowering of prescription drug prices.

They pooh-poohed it in debate, and not a single one voted for it, but two years later, they’ve changed their tune—get this—taking credit for a law they disparaged and wouldn’t vote for. Only Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote in a dead-locked Senate saved this one from history’s dust bin.

I got old when I wasn’t paying attention. Probably so gradually at first that I didn’t recognize it. I can’t hit a golf ball as far as I used to, and my knees and hips complain. A lot. Of course, as a cancer survivor, I’m really lucky to be able to write about getting old. The alternative there for a while was that someone younger would eulogize me. I’m surely lucky.

But, as my grandmother used to say, getting old isn’t for sissies. We slow down, our joints hurt. We do yoga and stretch constantly, but if elasticity is youth, I’m those stretched out socks that dwell, ignored, at the bottom of the drawer.

Something else about aging is the ridiculously high cost of the inevitable panoply of drugs we begin taking to manage arthritis pain, diabetes, cognitive decline, off-track digestion, kidney disease, heart disease, liver disease, and the rest. Across the globe, seniors pay less for necessary meds than they do here in the States.

Big Pharma’s rap has always been that to create these important new drugs, they need to spend a ton on research and development, and have every right to expect a return —a good return—on risky, time-consuming R&D and testing. It’s a good answer. If only it had the added benefit of being true.

The Biden administration forced a cap on insulin to make its pricing align with what the rest of the world pays for this widely used generic drug, about $35.

According to a RAND Corporation research report in 2021, We pay 2.56 times as much for medicine than the other 32 developed countries they surveyed. Our use of branded drugs is what drives that average, because for those name-brand drugs, we pay 3.44 times more than the rest of the countries surveyed. There’s an obvious consumer fix here: demand generics!

One of the great accomplishments of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act was to give Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices—a first. It took years and Ol’ Joe’s Senate relationships to defeat Big Pharma’s multi-decade, multi-million-dollar lobbying efforts. It’s yet another example of Republicans publicly roasting him for passing a bill, then taking credit for it when it proves popular. People, themselves included, really love it. Rolling Stone details the quiet about-face here.

For the first two years after the law’s enactment, Republican lawmakers bashed it as, Majority Whip, Steve Scalise said, “a socialist spending spree.” “Earlier this month, 18 Republican House members wrote a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) urging him to ‘to prioritize business and market certainty as you consider efforts that repeal or reform the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).’ The signatories, which include Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa.), Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), and Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), wrote that they’ve heard ‘from industry and our constituents who fear the energy tax regime will once again be turned on its head due to Republican repeal efforts.’” 

Windmills in Louisiana, a battery plant in Tennessee, a Volvo plant in South Carolina, all initially dismissed by their Republican reps as inflationary, are now praised as anti-inflationary for their new tech, new jobs, and the lowering of inflation.

Rolling Stone again: “The widespread post-Covid economic benefits of the IRA have stood in defiance of this Republican criticism. On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that inflation had dropped below three percent in July to its lowest levels since March 2021. Weekly unemployment continues to fall, and mortgage applications have hit a 19-month high.”

Initially covering the ten most prescribed drugs in America, whose list prices have fallen by 38% to 79%, the government will release a list of the next 15 drugs whose prices will be reduced in February of next year. (Unless you-know-who wins and Project 2025 is implemented, gutting our regulatory bodies. By not so subtle contrast, as VP Harris talks economics, the Former Guy tells is he is entitled to make personal attacks against Harris. No policies were discussed, although he did argue that he is better looking than she.)

Say what you will, political orthodoxy always winds up bowing to the potent mix of positive results, and voters’ love of a program.

©2024 Jon Sinton