The price of prescription drugs is a hot topic and politicians promise to tackle the problem, often with rhetoric and overstated promises that fail to reflect reality.
I have written before about drug negotiations and the cost of insulin questioning the assumptions being made about real costs and the promises a net savings.
Following are two recent articles that reflect the reality of the actions taken relative to the claims made.
Medicare and Primary Care
Biden Said Medicare Drug Price Negotiations Cut the Deficit by $160B. That’s Years Away.
By Amy Sherman, PolitiFact
Savings estimated by the Congressional Budget Office from allowing the federal government to negotiate Medicare drug prices are based on a 10-year cumulative projection.Biden Is Right About $35 Insulin Cap but Exaggerates Prior Costs for Medicare Enrollees
By Samantha Putterman, PolitiFact
Most Medicare enrollees likely were not paying a monthly average of $400 — as President Joe Biden stated — before the insulin cap took effect. However, because costs and other factors result in widely varying prices, some Medicare enrollees might have paid that much in a given month.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Did you ever wonder where they get the numbers? Do they just wave their wand, find a figure they think satisfies the populace, and then by edit it is done. Didn’t the old man just add to the deficit with his scheme to transfer student loans to the working folks.?
On the campaign either side will say anything so take it all with a grain of salt.
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The numbers are calculated by the CBO and others, but the devil is in the details and mostly the assumptions which are generous in favor of whomever is trying to prove their point. Plus, all spending or saving items are projected over the next ten years, so nobody ever knows the actual outcomes. I don’t know how forgiving loans cannot impact the deficit, but I am sure there is some creative accounting going on.
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Don’t get too close to the pols when they’re on the campaign trail, they’re very good at whizzing on your leg and calling it rainwater. The Grand Buffoon is the master at that, I will give him credit on that score.
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Another bit Biden left out is what he claims to save on the one hand is spent on the other.
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The other bit of info Biden left out is the fact that on May, 2020 Trump announced the reduction in certain Medicare prescriptions including the insulin cap.
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