Protect Patients from Costly Care Act

This bill would undo recent changes to Medicaid and Medicare drug rules. It cancels changes to Medicaid “cost sharing” so the program would go back to its earlier rules, and it takes back the money that was set aside for those changes. It also restores the earlier policy on rare-disease (“orphan”) drugs in Medicare’s drug price negotiation program, returning to the prior rule about excluding those drugs from negotiation.

In short, it aims to keep Medicaid costs and rare-disease drug rules the same as they were before those recent changes were made.

• Who is affected: Medicaid patients, state Medicaid programs, and people who rely on rare-disease drugs covered by Medicare.
• What changes: Repeals the newer Medicaid cost-sharing rules; restores the earlier exclusion policy for orphan drugs in Medicare’s negotiation program; rescinds funds tied to the repealed Medicaid changes.
• What it means day to day: Medicaid rules would stay as they were before the recent changes, and certain rare-disease drugs would continue to be treated under the earlier Medicare policy.