Deal on Capitol Hill could ease seniors’ health costs

Deal on Capitol Hill could ease seniors’ health costs

FILE - This July 6, 2017 file photo shows prescription drugs displayed in a glass flask in Taylorsville, Utah. About 91% of people over 65 take at least one prescription medicine and 41% use five or more -- what doctors call polypharmacy. The risk of side effects or interactions rises as the pill burden does, and one doctor often is unaware of what others have already prescribed for the same patient. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

(AP) — Some older Americans are cheering news of a deal on Capitol Hill that could lead to lower drug costs. The health care and climate agreement struck by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin includes multiple landmark provisions that could help Medicare beneficiaries. Among them: a $2,000-a-year-cap on prescription drug costs, and a provision allowing the federal government to directly negotiate with pharmaceutical companies. Senior citizens on costly drugs can run up bills of tens of thousands of dollars a year. David Lipschutz of the nonpartisan Center for Medicare Advocacy calls the deal “transformational” even if it doesn’t go as far as some lawmakers and advocates had hoped.

Photo: (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)