For more than a decade I have been learning how to cope with Parkinson’s disease, which hit me when I was 49 years old. This neurodegenerative disease impacts movement, coordination and cognition. It caused me to fall down a staircase, resulting in traumatic brain injury and spinal damage, requiring a long hospital stay where I had to learn how to walk and talk all over again.
Just as difficult has been the financial hit that came with the disease. As a retired police officer, I was comfortable but not wealthy. But all that changed, as I have had to pay for drugs that are essential for me to lead a decent life.
I am grateful for the prescription drugs that improve my symptoms. But at $2,700 a month, the cost has been nearly as traumatic as the disease itself. I ended up with my retirement account wiped out and I was also forced to give up my home.
The best news I have received in a long time came when President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in 2022. The IRA is generating major benefits for millions of Americans. Beginning in 2025, out-of-pocket costs on drugs will be capped at $2,000 a year for Medicare enrollees like me.
These IRA benefits will be life-changing for me. I expect to save nearly $30,000 a year on my medicines, which will help me stay financially stable and able to focus on my physical health.
Tens of millions of other Medicare beneficiaries will see similar benefits. The Inflation Reduction Act is delivering on its promise of real relief for millions of Americans like me, who every month have to make the agonizing decision of whether to “heat, eat, or treat.”
The Inflation Reduction Act also caps the cost of insulin at $35 per month for Medicare enrollees, saves 15 million Americans an average of $800 a year on their health insurance premiums, and authorizes Medicare to negotiate with prescription drug corporations to reduce costs.
The IRA is literally saving lives and helping millions of Americans manage their health costs. But nothing is stopping a future Congress and a new administration from undoing the IRA’s provisions.
I’m spending as much time as I can urging congressional candidates and the next president to support the health care access and prescription drug affordability provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
In Maryland, I know that we are working to ensure drug affordability remains a priority for candidates. I was proud to see that the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative called on all Maryland primary election winners running for Congress to commit to protecting the health care access and prescription drug affordability provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, should they be elected. Likewise, the Committee to Protect Health Care is asking for a similar commitment from all candidates for the U.S. House and Senate across the nation. And, I have personally written to Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump urging them to commit to keeping in place and fully implementing the life-saving health care and prescription drug affordability provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act.
There are millions of other people across the country who will be gravely injured if the IRA’s health provisions are undone by the next Congress. We can’t let that happen. I urge everyone to support candidates who vow to protect this law.
Because we cannot afford to go back.
Larry Zarzecki ([email protected]) is a retired police officer and Stevensville resident.
