LEBANON, N.H. (WCAX) – Addiction, access to rural health care, and high drug prices were just some of the issues U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra discussed during a stop in the Upper Valley Tuesday. For the third time in as many months, a member of President Biden’s cabinet traveled to New Hampshire touting the work of the administration.
“Oh yeah, I take prescription drugs every day,” said Dick Nelson of Lebanon.
At 74, Nelson is a pretty healthy-looking guy, but he takes between eight and ten prescription medications a day. “This past month, January, has been a hard one because that’s the first month of the year and that’s when the deductibles kick in. So for example, my inhaler — instead of being $40 — it ends up being $100,” Nelson said.
Drug prices were at the top of the agenda during Tuesday’s meeting at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center with HHS Secretary Becerra answering questions from Dartmouth Health CEO Joanne Conroy and New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan.
The Biden administration’s so-called Investing in America Tour is highlighting provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act designed to lower health care costs by capping out-of-pocket payments.
“No senior is going to have to pay more than $2,000 out of pocket for prescription drugs. That may not seem like a lot for some people but there are thousands and thousands of Americans that are paying tens of thousands of dollars every single year for their drug prices,” Becerra said.
The act also allows Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies and caps monthly insulin costs at $35. “The manufacturers of insulin, having shown that they could live with the $35 cap on Medicare, are going to be capping it for other cohorts as well,” Sen. Hassan said.
But if you talk to those who are most impacted by high prices–seniors and those on a fixed income–they’ll tell you more needs to be done. “I think we should have health care like other countries — Canada, Europe, the rest of the civilized world,” Nelson said.
The U.S. Education Secretary met last month with students at Dartmouth College. In December, the commerce secretary was in Nashua highlighting the Chips and Science Act.