From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.advocacy

More 'good news' from Biden/Harris.
January 20th cannot come soon enough.

'Biden and Harris Raided Medicare to Fund Green New Deal: Premiums Are
Now Set to Spike'

<https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/biden-harris-raided-medicare-fund-green-new-deal/>

'When Democrats rammed through the Inflation Reduction Act during the
days they controlled all of Washington, D.C., it ignited a chain
reaction that led to higher Medicare costs for America’s senior
citizens.

“Nearly two years after its passage, the IRA has diverted nearly $260
billion from the projected Medicare ‘savings’ to pay for special
interest handouts like large tax credits for costly electric vehicles,
enormous subsidies paid to big health insurer-PBM corporations, and
funding health care programs for illegal immigrants,” Ron Fitzwater,
Chief Executive Officer of the Missouri Pharmacy Association, wrote in
an Op-Ed in the Missouri Times.

“The Biden-Harris administration is not protecting Medicare; they’re stealing from it,” he wrote.



According to Politico, the chain reaction began when the act shifted the
burden of paying for prescription medicine from seniors to insurance
companies.

Putin’s Worst Nightmare: What This Man Reveals Could Win Any War

Then came what could have been predicted: Insurance companies hiked
their premiums for 2025.

Fitwater, in his Op-Ed, said increases were coming in at 179 percent.

But since that was going to hit right before the election, there was one
more step – a federal bailout that has the taxpayer-funded federal
treasury taking the hit for what the IRA caused.





“It’s using the federal treasury for political advantage,” Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.

“This is a way for the executive branch to implement a policy which has
very positive political ramifications for them, but with very sketchy
legal standing,” he said.

Fitzwater estimates that “All told, that puts the entire IRA raid on
Medicare at well over $330 billion.”


The IRA’s tinkering with Medicare also has impacted drug companies. A
Wall Street Journal editorial explained the process.

“The IRA let Medicare ‘negotiate’ prices for 10 to 20 drugs a year and a total of 60 by 2029. Negotiate is a euphemism for extortion: Drug makers
that don’t participate or reject the government’s price face a daily
excise tax that starts at 186% and climbs to 1,900% of a drug’s daily revenue,” the editorial began.

“The law also requires manufacturers to pay the government rebates on medicines sold to Medicare if they raise prices more than the rate of inflation, and puts them on the hook for more of the entitlement’s Part
D costs. Democrats used the resulting estimated ‘savings’ of some $160 billion to pay for the green new deal,” the editorial said.


“But subsidized solar panels won’t help if you get sick. The inevitable, albeit invisible, result of Democrats’ raid on pharmaceutical companies
will be fewer new medicines,” the WSJ editorial explained'
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