Last-minute maneuvers by departing Biden administration bureaucrats were designed to prevent Trump administration officials from undoing the drastic changes the ludicrously named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) made to Medicare. As President Donald J. Trump has done in other instances since taking office, he would be wise to immediately to freeze further implementation of the IRA’s costly manipulation of Medicare before seniors and taxpayers pay an even higher price for a lower quality of care and unrelated green energy spending.
The Trump administration has until Feb. 1 to require Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to post guidance that it is pausing any subsequent IRA changes to Medicare. That will give incoming CMS chief nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz and his team time to assess the deficiencies and the full impact of Biden-backed price controls and Medicare-funded spending shenanigans. Those changes have already resulted in skyrocketing drug plan premiums for program enrollees, access restrictions, and far fewer health plans to choose from – while doing basically nothing to lower their out-of-pocket costs.
The real intent of the IRA was never to improve Medicare. It was a thinly veiled ploy to lower government health care spending and then divert the money supposedly saved to pay for hundreds of billions in unrelated progressive priorities, including more tax credits for electric vehicle buyers and subsidies for politically-connected big insurance companies.
Drug price fixing, which Joe Biden’s administration misleadingly termed “price negotiation” in the IRA, has had a disastrous effect on seniors in Medicare. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Part D premiums went up 179 percent from 2024 to 2025. The CBO told Congress that provisions in the IRA caused Part D plan bids from the private companies that administer them to rise significantly, predicting that Part D costs would go up anywhere from $10 billion to $20 billion by 2025, compared to earlier projections.
Just days before leaving office, Biden officials named 15 new drugs to fall under IRA price controls, up from 10 drugs targeted in 2024. The list includes breakthrough treatments for diabetes and various forms of cancer. These are medications that seniors need. To protect access to them, President Trump must freeze the IRA so that he and his appointees, not Biden-era holdovers, have the final say on Medicare drug policies. This will help to ensure Medicare, and any savings are directed to benefit seniors directly – not unrelated spending and new profit centers for corporate middlemen.
If that freeze is not implemented before Feb. 1, Biden administration rules governing Part D policy reviews will be triggered. This would include mandates for drug manufacturers to sign agreements to supposedly negotiate by Feb. 28 and submit data by March 1 – or face penalties of up to 95 percent tax on a drug’s total sales revenue. If those rules are put in place, it would be even more difficult for Trump officials to get rid of counterproductive IRA health care policies. Even worse, it will have a chilling effect on future research and development investments in chronic and rare diseases. This would snowball the pill penalty that began after Biden’s first wave of IRA price control measures last year.
Other failed policies of the IRA involve drug manufacturer discounts and rebates to pharmacies. Because no viable payment system was put in place, manufacturers will find it impossible to comply with future pharmacy payment timing regulations. As a result, the National Community Pharmacy Association (NCPA) reports that over 90 percent of their member pharmacies say they won’t be able to provide patients with their medications, or do so at a loss, when the program goes into full effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
The Biden administration and the Democratic bloc that voted in the IRA are responsible for the chaos that will ensue. However, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress will inevitably be blamed by the media for any shortages or failing to reduce drug prices for seniors if their hands remain tied. In addition, the IRA allows CMS to set drug prices through 2028, circumventing the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) requirements that federal agencies conduct themselves in an open and transparent manner. Clearly, President Trump’s commitment to government transparency makes pausing the IRA an easy call.
Starting on day one of his second term, President Trump began vigorously halting many Biden regulations from being implemented, pending further review by his team. He also revoked 78 Biden Executive Orders that he found to be “unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices.” The harmful IRA Medicare policies the Biden administration forced on this essential program certainly fall into this category and deserve the same treatment. President Trump should take action now, before the Feb. 1 deadline, to stop further damage to seniors’ health care.
Disclaimer: Gingrich 360 advises various companies in the health care sector which would be affected by the Inflation Reduction Act’s changes to Medicare.
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