Making Medicare Drugs Affordable
The cost of prescription drugs has long been out of control in the United States, with the federal government being barred from using its buying power to negotiate down sticker prices. Now, thanks to a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have begun negotiating lower drug prices. But pharmaceutical companies are already fighting back, with numerous lawsuits, placements of op-eds, and support from conservative lawmakers.
Merith Basey, executive director of Patients For Affordable Drugs NOW spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on Rising Up With Sonali about the IRA’s impact on drug prices and how spurious the arguments against price controls are.
The views expressed here and on Rising Up With Sonali do not necessarily reflect the opinion of YES! Media.
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Sonali Kolhatkar
is currently the racial justice editor at YES! Media and a writing fellow with Independent Media Institute. She was previously a weekly columnist for Truthdig.com. She is also the host and creator of Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. Sonali won First Place at the Los Angeles Press Club Annual Awards for Best Election Commentary in 2016. She also won numerous awards including Best TV Anchor from the LA Press Club and has also been nominated as Best Radio Anchor 4 years in a row. She is the author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, and the co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women's Mission. Her forthcoming book is Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (City Lights, 2023). She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. She reflects on her professional path in her 2014 TEDx talk, “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host.” She can be reached at sonalikolhatkar.com
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