i want to begin this morning with a big policy win for president biden. the law that s been told about it by some republicans. for 20, years the pharmaceutical industry has had near complete control of prescription drug pricing for some 65 million medicare patients in the united states. that is going to change. this, week the biden administration announced the first ten drugs that will be subject to price negotiations under any provision included in the inflation reduction act. president biden s signature bill that was passed last year. they target some of the most commonly used drugs that helped treat diabetes, heart, failure chronic kidney disease, blood, cancers arthritis, crohn s disease as well as blood thinners that prevent strokes and blood clots. according to the department of health and services health and human services, about 9 million medicare beneficiaries use one or more of these ten drugs in the past year and paid a total of 3.4 billion dollars out of pocket
billion medicare beneficiaries use one or more of these ten drugs in the past year and paid a total of 3.4 billene hours out of pocket for those medications. that is on top of the 55.9 billion dollars that the government spends on the safe checks every year. the federal government is the largest buyer of prescription drugs in the united states. now theoretically, in a market system, that would mean it has some measure of influence over the drug prices. power that has been specifically nullified by something called the non interference close. back in 2000, three when congress and president george w. bush passed the prescription drug benefit to medical care, pharmaceutical lobby added something called the non interference clause, which prevented the government and prescription drugs and the country s negotiating drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. in some cases, that has resulted in americans being double or triple the same amount for the same exact drug as