As the Biden-Harris administration’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services kicks off a series of listening sessions highlighting the first slate of 10 drugs that Medicare can negotiate lower prices for thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, MAGA Republicans continue to side with Big Pharma by trying to roll back the Inflation Reduction Act and attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Thanks to President Biden’s historic Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare will now negotiate directly with drug companies to lower health care costs for Americans. 

Politico: “The next public step in CMS’ implementation of the watershed negotiations will focus on gathering patient input on the first drugs chosen — a key factor in how the agency will calculate the drugs’ prices. The listening sessions will launch Oct. 30 and run through Nov. 15.”

NBC News: “Major drug companies including Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb have committed to participate in Medicare drug price negotiations with the federal government, the Biden administration said Tuesday. … The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services named the first 10 prescription drugs subject to price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act a little over a month ago.

Meanwhile, 2024 Republicans remain hellbent on eliminating the Inflation Reduction Act, which is already lowering health care costs for hardworking Americans. 

Insider: “Former President Donald Trump on Friday slammed the Democratic-led climate, health, and tax bill, arguing that Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was ‘taken for a ride’ by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.”

DeSantis: “You know, the good thing is I think there’s a pretty clear path to being able to reverse a lot of this stuff. The things he’s doing through executive order, you could reverse right away. But even what they did with the Inflation Reduction Act, they passed that via budget reconciliation in the Senate. So with 50 votes, I think, you know, we win the presidency, I’m pretty sure we would win the Senate and keep the House. And so at that case, what they put in by reconciliation, you could repeal by reconciliation.”

Haley: “[The Inflation Reduction Act] is a communist manifesto.”

Scott: “I would simply eliminate the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, which of course, is a lie from the pit of hell. … I would start the process of gutting that legislation.” 

Christie: “The Inflation Reduction Act was a mistake.”

Burgum on whether he would push to repeal the IRA: “Yeah.”

KARK: “In a statement Thursday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson came out in opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act, currently under debate in the senate. The act, a significant part of the Biden presidential agenda, puts billions of dollars into energy extraction and IRS enforcement, as well as health care reforms in Medicare drug pricing and Affordable Care Act extension.”

2024 Republicans have spent years trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would leave millions of hardworking Americans without health care coverage. 

NBC News: “Trump approved a surprise decision to push for the complete elimination of the Affordable Care Act in the courts. If it succeeded, millions of Americans would lose private insurance or Medicaid coverage and the health care system would be thrown into chaos.”

NPR: “The very day President Trump was sworn in — Jan. 20, 2017 — he signed an executive order instructing administration officials ‘to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay’ implementing parts of the Affordable Care Act, while Congress got ready to repeal and replace President Obama’s signature health law.”

HuffPost: “As a Republican serving in the U.S. House, [DeSantis] was part of a far-right caucus that voted against the first ACA repeal bill that leadership brought to the floor because, DeSantis and his allies said, it didn’t undo enough of the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions. GOP leaders eventually put forward a more aggressive repeal. DeSantis and his colleagues voted yes on that one, but it failed in the Senate.” 

Live News 5: “Gov. Haley speaks against Affordable Care Act, SC prepares for key deadline”

New York Times: Tim Scott voted for all three major Republican-led proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017.

Politico: “Despite the fact that millions of people had enrolled in Obamacare, the health law remains a ‘failure on a whole number of levels’ and should be repealed, Christie said. But, he added, Republicans must also offer a concrete replacement. The conversation, he said ‘must start from a position of repeal.’”

Reuters: “Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas has signed legislation that will end by 2017 the state’s innovative but controversial adaptation of the Affordable Care Act, which has provided nearly 190,000 residents with health coverage.”

HealthInsurance.org: “In late 2017, Burgum and 19 other Republican governors wrote a letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to repeal the ACA.”