Because of the high drug prices, Mario Berlanga has had to skip or ration doses of life-saving medicine. Berlanga, 63, who lives with diabetes, said he spends $800 for a two-month supply of just one drug — even with his private insurance.

“I need it if I want to live,” Berlanga said. “So you get it, but you have to stretch it.”

Skimping doses of crucial medication is not unique to the American experience, said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra this afternoon. It was the first day of Medicare open enrollment and Becerra spoke about how the program will benefit Nevadans in 2025 to a crowd of nearly 50 seniors in the Osher Center at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Becerra, in a town hall with Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., touted the benefits of President Joe Biden’s administration’s work to lower drug prices for seniors, while also expressing frustration with the current state of the drug market. The secretary said the U.S. has a dynamic pharmaceutical industry and that he is grateful for all its progress, but its residents are often unable to reap those benefits.

“That does not excuse overcharging, I would say, gouging, the American public, so you could make the money,” Becerra said. “If we only got the price similar to what you saw in other places around the world, it would be far more easy for someone like Mario, for many of you, to be able to live your life better.”

In 2022, U.S. prices across all drugs were nearly three times as high as prices in 33 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, according to a report released earlier
this year from the HHS’ principal advising group and RAND Health Care.

The Biden administration has made significant strides with seniors, which Becerra and Titus addressed. The president’s crowning achievement in office, the Inflation Reduction Act, allows Medicare to negotiate with drug companies to lower costs. Vice President Kamala Harris was the tiebreaking vote in the legislation.

The Biden administration’s accomplishments include an insulin cap at $35, with HHS saying Nevadan seniors on Medicare save an average of $439 annually. The two shared a particular enthusiasm for the cuts to out-of-pocket costs for seniors.

“Now, thanks to that spending cap that will go in effect next year, we estimate about 117,000 Medicare Part D enrollees will save about $31 million,” Titus said. “So we're talking about real impacts, and you can certainly see it here in Nevada, where this has been just a problem for such a long time.”

Becerra’s visit fell 21 days before Election Day — with early voting starting in the Silver State on Saturday — though the secretary was not visiting in any campaign capacity.

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most prominent lobbying groups in the country. From January 2023 to August 2024, a political action committee that said it represents “the nation's leading biopharmaceutical research companies” — the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America Better Government Committee — spent $415,276, according to FEC filings.