Washington D.C. - Today, Congressman Charles B. Rangel announced that in 2012, more than 71,000 New Yorkers with Medicare saved over $45 million on their prescription drugs as a result of the Affordable Care Act.  Nationally, more than one million people have already saved over $680 million, an average of $629 saved per person this year.

"Millions of Americans with Medicare have recently been spending less on their prescription drugs thanks to the Affordable Care Act.  In New York alone, healthcare law has saved over $282 million since the enactment two years ago," Rangel said.  "These numbers prove that healthcare reform is working.  There is absolutely no reasoning behind the Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act when it is helping so many people.  I will continue to defend it so that more Americans can receive the benefits it aims to provide."

A release by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) shows that as a result of the Affordable Care Act, over 5.2 million seniors and people with disabilities have saved over $3.9 billion on prescription drugs since the law was enacted in March 2010.  These savings are automatically applied to prescription drugs that people with Medicare purchase, after they hit the Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage gap or “donut hole.” Since the law was enacted, seniors and people with disabilities have had several opportunities to save on prescription drugs:

•    In 2010, people with Medicare who hit the donut hole received a one-time $250 rebate. These rebates totaled $946 million for 2010.
•    In 2011, people with Medicare began receiving a 50 percent discount on covered brand name drugs and 7 percent coverage of generic drugs in the donut hole. Last year, these discounts totaled over $2.3 billion in savings
•    This year, Medicare coverage for generic drugs in the coverage gap has risen to 14 percent. For the first six months of the year, people with Medicare have saved $687 million.

Coverage for both brand name and generic drugs in the gap will continue to increase over time until 2020, when the coverage gap will be closed.

For more information on how the Affordable Care Act closes the Medicare drug benefit coverage gap “donut hole,” please visit: http://www.healthcare.gov/law/features/65-older/drug-discounts/index.html

For State-by-State information on the amount of savings people with Medicare have received in the donut hole, please visit: https://www.cms.gov/Plan-Payment