Medicare is one of the most popular of all government programs. But changes to Medicare made by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) could seriously undermine its benefits for seniors.

Medicare has historically had broad public support, with polling showing 80 percent of Americans are in favor of the program and only 15 percent have a negative opinion of it. Beneficiaries like it even more, with 91 percent of program enrollees saying they are satisfied with their plan.

But there are troubling changes ahead for Medicare, brought about by the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. Provisions in this law change fundamental pieces of the program including giving Medicare the power to set drug prices, something private sector insurance experts have done in the past. Even though this government price-fixing scheme was sold to voters as price negotiation, it gives the government an ultimate, take-it-or-leave-it final say in what the price of a number of different medications will be. In a true negotiation, both sides have leverage, not just one.

Although this new drug policy has not yet taken effect, it’s already having the opposite impact than its proponents claimed, including rising medication costs for Medicare enrollees. A survey of seniors conducted last summer found that 42 percent of them had seen the prices of their prescription drugs increase, compared to only 10 percent who had realized savings on prescriptions. The percentage of Medicare patients that had to pay more for their medications was significantly higher than those who had seen no change.

But the cost of prescription medications might be the least of seniors’ worries due to the IRA’s passage. While the IRA will decrease the out-of-pocket maximum expenditure, it did not set measures to ensure that the lost revenue wouldn’t burden seniors somewhere else. Sure enough, insurers have begun increasing premiums to make up for the lost capital and limiting access to drugs despite the cap not going into effect for two years. But what’s worse, they might not be able to get the medicines they need at all.

It’s predicted that the government price controls created by the IRA are going to seriously diminish innovation in the pharmaceutical sector. That only stands to reason, as it now costs an average of more than $2 billion to develop and test new drug therapies. Pharmaceutical companies are going to be very reluctant to invest that kind of money in a drug that could be subject to price fixing mandates based more on what the government wants to pay than the true cost of R&D, manufacturing, and marketing.

A University of Chicago study backs up this troubling prospect. Their researchers estimated that price controls would diminish R&D spending in the biopharmaceutical sector by as much as 60 percent over two decades, potentially eliminating the innovation of more than 340 new drugs. This could include new treatments for Alzheimer’s, cancer, and other ailments that increasingly present as patients age. The United States is the world’s premier developer of new pharmaceuticals; we don’t want to see that lifesaving pipeline narrowed by overzealous government interference.

This is obviously an issue of nationwide importance, but it will have a very real impact right here in Connecticut. Connecticut has developed a strong biopharmaceutical industry of pharmaceutical manufacturers and small to medium size biotechnology firms that are contributing $17.2 billion to the state’s economy and employing 12,445 individuals. Less investment by these companies in therapies that would benefit seniors will also impact employees and state revenues.

Much of the money that the IRA will cut from Medicare spending is not going to benefit seniors, as the IRA is much more about supporting green technologies and other liberal priorities than aiding retirees. Medicare savings will be stripped from the program and used to help finance the $670 billion in clean energy tax credits and other environmental spending mandated by the program.

For all its promises, the IRA is a disappointment for American seniors.

John Calkins lives in Litchfield.