5 Ways AARP Is Fighting to Lower Drug Prices

A historic effort lowered Medicare prescription prices and set an annual cap on drug expenses

Miriam Cross,

AARP

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Published December 18, 2025

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Linda Essenmacher pulled money from her savings in 2024 to help cover an expensive medication that treats intense back pain caused by an inflammatory disease. Even with Medicare, the drug costs the 80-year-old Dover, Delaware, resident more than $2,000 each month.

In 2025, there was no need to resort to savings: a new annual cap on out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare Part D beneficiaries had kicked in. By the end of January, Essenmacher had hit the $2,000 limit for 2025 and would pay nothing for her medication for the rest of the year.

Without this ceiling, “there is no way I could have afforded it,” Essenmacher says.

AARP lobbied for that cap on drug costs to be included in a law that passed in 2022. It’s just one of many ways AARP has worked to lower prescription drug prices for older adults who often need medications to stay healthy, comfortable and pain-free.

More on Medicare Drug Savings

For a deeper analysis of how much money Medicare enrollees will save on the first 10 drugs selected for negotiation, read this new report from AARP's Public Policy Institute.

When prescription drugs skyrocket in price, older adults face dire consequences. They may be forced to choose between paying for pills or electric bills. Or they may be tempted to stretch out their supply rather than taking dosages as prescribed. A 2025 AARP survey found that 82 percent of adults 50 and older report taking prescription drugs regularly and almost 60 percent are concerned about their ability to afford prescription drugs in the next few years.

Our advocacy on this issue dates back decades. We supported the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which created Medicare Part D, an optional coverage that helps pay for brand-name and generic drugs that you pick up at a pharmacy. Our continued efforts are bearing fruit: Part D enrollees are expected to save $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs next year because of newly negotiated prices between Medicare and pharmaceutical companies. Coupled with a $35 cap on insulin, no-cost shingles and flu vaccines, and other measures, older adults are seeing substantial savings.

Here are five ways AARP has fought to make lower drug prices a top priority.

1. Making Medicare drug price negotiation a reality

The 2003 law that created Medicare Part D included language that barred Medicare from negotiating prices with drug manufacturers. That all changed with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

“The U.S. doesn’t have any mechanisms to stop drug companies from setting high prices and increasing them over time,” says Leigh Purvis, prescription drug policy principal at AARP’s Public Policy Institute and author of a new analysis of savings derived from this win. “Medicare negotiation is the first broad-scale effort we’ve had in this country to help bring down prices for a lot of people.”

This 2022 law allowed Medicare to negotiate prices directly with pharmaceutical companies for the first time in history for certain popular brand-name, high-priced drugs with no generic or biosimilar competitors. This particular provision was almost pulled at the last minute during 2022 negotiations, but AARP activated its volunteer base to urge lawmakers to keep it in.

All told, AARP members have submitted 1,151,257 letters to Congress supporting the prescription drug law since 2021.

“This was the first time I can think of that the big drug companies lost,” says Khelan Bhatia, a campaign operations director at AARP, “in large part due to AARP members sending messages to Congress and making sure the drug law was included in the IRA.”

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The savings are coming fast.

In 2024, Medicare negotiated lower prices on the first set of 10 expensive drugs commonly used by older adults, including Eliquis for blood clot prevention and treatment (cost reduced by 56 percent for a 30-day supply) and diabetes medication Januvia (discounted by 79 percent for a 30-day supply). These lower prices will go into effect on Jan.1, 2026, and will be made available to all eligible Medicare beneficiaries. In November, the federal government unveiled price cuts for an additional 15 drugs, including the popular GLP-1s Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy, for prices that will become available Jan. 1, 2027. Up to 15 Part D- or Part B-covered drugs will be selected for price negotiation for 2028, and another 20 will have their turn in 2029 and later years.

AARP’s input continues to make a difference: Guidance for the third round of price negotiation included our recommendation to use more comprehensive information when selecting drugs covered by Medicare Part B.

2. Securing a cap on prescription drug expenses

Although Medicare beneficiaries will wait a few more weeks to see lower prices on 10 common drugs, they have enjoyed a slew of other cost-saving measures for which AARP advocated.

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Essenmacher’s story is one example. Before the prescription drug law, there was no hard out-of-pocket cap on medication costs under Medicare. “People on expensive drugs were spending upwards of $10,000 a year just on those drugs,” Purvis says. That all changed when a new $2,000 yearly limit for people on Medicare Part D drug plans went into effect at the beginning of 2025. AARP research from 2025 calculates that the average person would save $2,474 over the course of the year. The cap rises to $2,100 in 2026 and will continue to move with the other parts of the Part D benefit every year.

We scored other wins as part of the 2022 law as well. In 2022, a penalty went into place for drug companies that raise their prices faster than inflation. In 2023, Medicare users started receiving recommended vaccines for free. The same year, those enrolled in Part B and Part D saw a new $35 per month cap on insulin co-pays.

3. Defending against challenges

Medicare drug price negotiation is well underway and is projected to reduce cost-sharing for Part D enrollees who are taking the negotiated drugs by an average of 50 percent, according to a December report from AARP’s Public Policy Institute that examined stand-alone Part D plans in five states with high Medicare enrollment. However, drug companies are spending millions to weaken the law.

“The fight isn’t over,” says AARP chief advocacy and engagement officer Nancy LeaMond.

AARP wrote to a bipartisan group of lawmakers in October opposing the Ensuring Pathways to Innovate Cures, or EPIC Act, which would drag out the period that traditional medications are exempt from price negotiation from nine years to 13.

“That’s four more years where patients and taxpayers would continue bearing the burden of high prices,” AARP wrote. “In real terms, taxpayers could face close to $10 billion in unnecessary spending.”

In May, we launched a campaign urging members to write to Congress and reject the bill. More than 300,000 messages were sent.

In tandem, AARP Foundation has filed more than a dozen amicus briefs in federal courts as pharmaceutical companies have fought to halt the Medicare drug price negotiation program. Amicus briefs are legal documents filed by outside parties with additional context that help judges understand complex issues. AARP Foundation makes it clear that skyrocketing prescription prices force older adults to make drastic choices.

“We bring the people who depend on Medicare to access their medications into the room,” says Maame Gyamfi, a senior lead attorney at AARP Foundation. “We’re not just talking about some abstract legal principle, but about real-world concerns.”

4. Boosting competition and spurring access to generics

Drug prices come down when there is healthy price competition in the market between brand-name and generic and biosimilar versions. AARP is taking several tactics to ensure that such competition is not delayed any longer than necessary.

AARP supported several bipartisan Senate bills this year that address the problem of brand-name manufacturers blocking generic competitors by abusing the patent system, including Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act, the Preserving Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act and the Reforming Evergreening and Manipulation that Extends Drug Years, or REMEDY, Act. The REMEDY Act, for example, would crack down on brand-name drug companies that accuse generic manufacturers of infringing on multiple patents, which delays a generic drug’s journey to market.

“Drug companies are trying to extend their monopolies for as long as possible,” Purvis says. “Anything that helps get those generics and biosimilars on the market faster is a huge improvement.”

Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, are another sticking point. PBMs are influential middlemen that negotiate drug prices with manufacturers and pharmacies on behalf of health insurers. AARP has long supported consumer-friendly reforms that would crack down on anticompetitive practices that may contribute to high prescription drug prices.

For example, AARP wrote to a House of Representatives subcommittee on health in February about how murky PBM practices could hinder competition and undermine accountability. A letter to a bipartisan pair of senators in December championed proposals that would hold PBMs accountable and remove incentives that may elevate prices.

5. Promoting affordability at the state level

Although states are limited in how they can rein in high drug prices, there are actions they can take to curb how much residents spend and to promote transparency. AARP state and territory offices have passed legislation in almost every state to address prescription drug prices. In 2025 specifically, we notched 23 wins related to prescription drugs, including a $25 cap on monthly insulin copays in Massachusetts and North Dakota and a ban on midyear formulary changes in Minnesota, meaning health plans in the state cannot remove a drug from an approved list or make certain changes in the cost to consumers.

We’ve pushed states to establish prescription drug affordability boards, or PDABs. These independent bodies review the cost of prescription medications and strategize ways to lower high prices. For example, Colorado’s affordability board recently set an upper payment limit on certain drugs that is meant to go into effect in January. AARP Maryland helped fight for a similar requirement this year.

States are also weighing variations on ideas in which they either import drugs from other countries or use other countries’ lower prices to set their own. AARP Texas shared price research and testified at committee hearings to help pass a bill in 2023 that would allow importation of certain prescription medications from Canada. AARP Connecticut supported the passage of a bill this year that would study the feasibility of importing drugs from Canada. If the state determines it will work, it will then seek approval from the federal government.

State offices have also increased funding for programs that help residents afford prescription drugs and taken on price gouging tactics by manufacturers.

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