AARP Calls on Congress to Protect Medicare Drug Price Negotiation

Pharmaceutical companies are trying to make it harder to lower prescription costs

Rachel Nania,

AARP

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En español

Published May 15, 2025

AARP (Getty Images)

For the first time in history, Medicare has the power to negotiate the price it pays for some of the costliest and most-used prescription drugs in the U.S., passing the savings on to taxpayers and the millions of older adults who rely on these life-saving medications.

But drug companies are pushing for legislation that would disrupt this process and delay cost savings for beneficiaries, many of whom already struggle to afford their prescription drugs.

AARP is fighting back and urging lawmakers to protect the Medicare prescription-drug negotiation program and patients’ pockets.

Delaying negotiations delays savings for millions

So far, Medicare has negotiated lower prices for 10 prescription medications that treat a variety of conditions, including diabetes, heart failure, kidney disease and cancer. When these lower prices take effect in 2026, enrollees are expected to see a collective savings of $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket expenses. Negotiations for 15 additional prescription drugs are underway, and more medications will be selected and negotiated every year going forward.

Drug companies, however, want to disrupt this widely supported process by delaying for years when medications become eligible for price negotiation. Doing so gives them more time to set high prices for their medications and hike them each year.

Currently, Medicare has to wait seven years after a traditional drug gets approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it’s eligible for Medicare price negotiations. Traditional drugs, also called small-molecule drugs or nonbiologics, are medications that are typically taken orally, like a blood pressure pill. For biologic drugs — medicines that are usually injected or infused — 11 years must pass before they can be considered for Medicare negotiations.

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Join AARP in telling Congress to protect seniors and taxpayers and not big drug companies.

Then, once Medicare selects a prescription drug for negotiation, it’s a full two years before lower prices take effect, meaning older adults won’t start to see savings until medications have been on the market for at least nine years, and sometimes as long as 13 years or more.

Drug companies want to extend this wait time and are proposing that all drugs be on the market for at least 13 years before a Medicare-negotiated price takes effect.

Older Americans struggle to pay for prescriptions

Federal data shows that nearly all U.S. adults ages 65 and older take at least one prescription drug, and many take multiple. Despite the widespread use of these medications, a significant share of older adults struggle to afford them. A 2024 AARP survey found that nearly half of people reported not filling a prescription because of its cost, or knowing someone who hasn’t filled one due to cost. A recent KFF poll found that the vast majority of U.S. adults think prescription drug prices are unreasonable, and that profits made by pharmaceutical companies are a key contributor to soaring costs.

The pharmaceutical industry argues that shortening the time between FDA approval and a drug’s eligibility for Medicare drug price negotiation hurts “incentives for innovation.” But as AARP points out in a letter sent to Congress on May 1, investment in traditional nonbiologic pills “has actually increased” since Medicare has had the power to negotiate lower drug prices for older Americans.

“Meanwhile, American taxpayers are already doing their part,” AARP said in its letter to lawmakers. “Our hard-earned tax dollars have supported the development of nearly every FDA-approved drug in the past decade. And yet, Americans continue to pay far more than patients in other countries for the exact same medicines, made in the exact same overseas factories. That is not a free market: It is a broken system that is deeply unfair to the American people.”

Join AARP in telling Congress to protect seniors and taxpayers and not big drug companies.