Making prescription drugs more affordable was a key goal of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). However, most Medicare beneficiaries may end up paying more out of pocket for medicines as Part D plans adjust to the law’s new provisions, according to a new white paper from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics.

The white paper identifies two major shifts in Part D plan offerings that leave patients more exposed to drugs’ sticker prices:

• A sharp increase in annual deductibles, or the amount that patients pay out of pocket before coverage begins.
• Fixed co-pays for common brand-name drugs are increasingly being replaced with coinsurance, in which patients pay a percentage of a drug’s list price, often a much higher amount.

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