Democrats didn’t cut Medicare by $280 billion

President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act on August 16, 2022. The act created sweeping changes to health care and climate policy and became one of the most important laws passed during his tenure.

The law passed without a Republican vote and drew significant conservative criticism lasting until 2023.

One line of criticism often repeated is the claim that the law drastically cuts Medicare. A VERIFIED viewer asked if it was true that Democrats cut $280 billion from the program as part of an IRA, as Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) recent statement.

Did the Democrats cut $280 billion from Medicare?

No, Democrats didn’t cut $280 billion from Medicare.

Scott revived claims common in political ads during the midterm elections, that Democrats cut nearly $300 billion in Medicare spending as part of the Inflation Reduction Act ( IRAs).

That number comes from an analysis of IRAs conducted by the Congressional Budget Office, which estimated that certain provisions in the law would save the program up to $280 billion over the next decade.

But that money is a cost savings, not a cut in Medicare benefits. The law allows Medicare to provide similar services at a lower cost to taxpayers.

For example, Medicare can now negotiate with drug companies to get cheaper drugs for its patients. Before the IRA, Medicare wasn’t legally allowed to do that.

Health care policy and budget groups have agreed that claims about cuts to Medicare are baseless.

Bill Sweeney, AARP’s senior vice president of government affairs, said in August: “It has been fact-checked multiple times and proven to be a lie. “In fact, this measure saves Medicare nearly $300 billion by reducing drug prices. Only pharmaceutical companies say that saving people money is a bad thing.”

The Federally Responsible Budget Committee called such claims “misleading attacks” when they were aired in midterm advertisements, saying: “In fact, The bill’s prescription drug savings would save the federal government nearly $300 billion through 2031 with no benefit cuts — and while actually reducing premiums and out-of-pocket costs by almost 300 billion dollars. billion dollars.”