An energetic crowd chanted “Thank you, Joe” as they welcomed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to Largo on Thursday, their first appearance together since she succeeded him as the Democratic presidential nominee.
The event at Prince George’s Community College was the White House’s official opportunity to announce that the government has negotiated lower prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, ultimately saving billions of dollars.
But the event had the feel of a campaign rally, with a cheering crowd of 2,300, a stage packed with Maryland Democrats and Biden, who at one point said Harris “would make a hell of a president.”
It was the first public appearance by the pair since Biden, under pressure from party leaders, dropped his reelection bid less than a month ago and Harris stepped in to replace him. She won a virtual roll call of party delegates earlier this month to become the party’s nominee, a move that will be formally confirmed next week when Democrats gather in Chicago for their national convention.
If there were any negative emotions, they were not perceptible on Thursday.
“It is an eternal and great, great, great honor for me, I have to tell you, to serve with this most extraordinary man, American and leader, our president Joe Biden,” Harris said, introducing Biden.
Biden, for his part, has said his administration will work to expand the $35-a-month cap on insulin for Medicare Part D recipients to everyone. But if it doesn’t get done before he leaves office next year, he said, “Kamala, when she becomes president, will make sure that … everyone should be eligible for that $35 a month.”
The annual insulin price cap was just one of a series of lower drug prices the White House touted during Thursday’s event. The official reason for the meeting was the announcement that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had ended negotiations with major pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices of 10 popular and widely used drugs. prescription drugs.
The smallest price cut was 38% for the blood cancer drug Imbruvica. Prices of other drugs were reduced by more than 50%, with the price of the diabetes drug Januvia falling by 79%.
The lower prices are expected to come into effect in 2026 and will save the government about $6 billion. White House. Patients will also save an estimated $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs.
“A nurse I just met is paying $9,000, including $900” for her prescriptions, Biden said. When the recent lower prices go into effect, “each prescription drug that has … the maximum she will have to pay is $2,000.”
Many in the crowd had experience with what Gov. Wes Moore (D) called the “breaking down of the health care system.”
Moore told the story of when he was a child and his father “was released from the hospital with instructions to go home and rest, and a few hours after being released, he died right in front of me.”
“We have a responsibility to ensure that our health care system never leaves any of us behind,” Moore told the crowd.
Also in the crowd was Larry Zarzecki, a brain injury survivor with Parkinson’s disease who said he struggles with high prescription drug costs and sees hope in lower costs negotiated by the government under a mandate granted in 2022 by the Inflation Reduction Act.
“The cost of my medications over the last five years has been well over $100,000. Now my medications cost about $3,000 a month,” Zarzecki said. “The IRA is so important because it will help me improve my quality of life and allow me to buy healthier foods.”
Beverly Simmons, an Air Force veteran who retired for medical reasons, said that “I was under a lot of treatment from 2010 to 2020. I’m retired now, but my pension didn’t cover all the medications I couldn’t afford. That’s why the Affordable Care Act is so important.”
“Vice President Kamala Harris needs to help us. Help the people who can’t afford their medications,” Simmons said.
Outside Novak Field House, a tiny group of Green Party supporters held signs for Jill Stein, their presidential candidate, and Biden faced several pro-Palestinian protesters during a speech to a packed auditorium after the event, according to a White House report. But the mood inside the Field House was overwhelmingly favorable.
The 90-minute event featured multiple health care speakers, including Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.
But many in the crowd were also excited to see Harris in Prince George’s County, where she is often showered with love from alumni of Howard University, her alma mater, and members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, where she was a member, and other Black Greek organizations. People like Kay Proctor.
“I actually went to school, I was in the same class as Kamala Harris, I went to Howard University in 1986, and she’s also my sister by sisterhood,” Proctor said before the event. “So I support her, President Biden and the administration to the fullest extent.”
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