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Biden and Harris talk about savings on medicines during their appearance in Maryland, but mostly praise each other

Chanting “Thank you, Joe,” an energetic crowd greeted President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in Largo on Thursday, their first joint appearance since she replaced him as the Democratic presidential nominee.

At the event at Prince George's Community College, the White House officially announced that the administration had negotiated lower prices for prescription drugs with pharmaceutical companies, which will ultimately result in billions of dollars in savings.

Nevertheless, it had the character of a campaign rally: 2,300 spectators cheered, the stage was full of Democrats from Maryland, and Biden said at one point that Harris would “make a damn good president.”

It was the pair's first public appearance since Biden withdrew his re-election bid under pressure from party leadership less than a month ago and Harris stepped in to replace him. Earlier this month, she won a virtual vote of party delegates and became the party's nominee. That move will be formally confirmed next week when Democrats meet in Chicago for their national convention.

If there were any bad feelings, they were not felt on Thursday.

“It is my eternal and great, great, great honor, I must tell you, to serve with this extraordinary human being and American and leader, our President Joe Biden,” Harris said as she introduced Biden.

For his part, Biden said his administration would work to extend the $35-a-month cap on insulin for Medicare Part D recipients to everyone. But if that is not completed before he leaves office next year, he said, “Kamala, as president, will make sure that … everyone is eligible for that $35 a month.”

The year-old cap on insulin prices was just one of the lower drug prices the White House boasted about at Thursday's event. The official reason for the event was the announcement that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had completed negotiations with major pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices of 10 popular and widely used prescription drugs.

President Joe Biden speaks at Prince George's Community College on Thursday. Photo by Elijah Pittman.

The smallest price reduction was for the blood cancer drug Imbruvica, which fell by 38 percent. All other drugs will see price reductions of over 50 percent, and the diabetes drug Januvia will see a price reduction of 79 percent.

These lower prices are expected to take effect in 2006 and will save the government an estimated $6 billion, according to the White House, and patients will save about $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs.

“A nurse I just met is paying $9,000, $900 of which” is for her prescriptions, Biden said. When the new lower prices take effect, “she will have to pay at most $2,000 for every single prescription drug she has.”

Many in the crowd had experience with what Governor Wes Moore (D) called the “brokenness of a health care system.”

Moore talked about his childhood and how his father “I was discharged from the hospital with instructions to go home and rest, and a few hours after his discharge he died in front of my eyes.”

“We have a duty to ensure that our health care system does not overlook any of us,” Moore told the crowd.

Among those in attendance was Larry Zarzecki, a traumatic brain injury survivor who suffers from Parkinson's disease. He said he struggles with the high cost of prescription drugs and sees hope in the lower costs the administration has negotiated, based on the authority it received through the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

“The cost of my medications over the last five years has been well over $100,000. My medications now cost about $3,000 a month,” Zarzecki said. “The IRA is so important because it will improve my quality of life and allow me to afford healthier foods.”

Beverly Simmons, an Air Force veteran who retired for health reasons, said, “From 2010 to 2020, I had to take a lot of medications. Now I'm retired, but my pension wasn't enough to pay for all the medications I couldn't afford. That's why an Affordable Care Act is so important.”

“Vice President Kamala Harris has to help us. Help the people who can't afford medicine,” Simmons said.

Outside Novak Field House, a small group of Green Party supporters held signs for their presidential candidate, Jill Stein, and Biden faced some pro-Palestinian protesters in an adjoining room after the event, according to a White House press pool report. But the mood inside the Field House was overwhelmingly supportive.

The 90-minute event featured numerous speakers on health care issues, including Health 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 by alumni of her alma mater, Howard University, and members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the sorority she was a member of, as well as 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 is also my soror,” Proctor said before the event. “And that's why I fully support her, President Biden and the administration.”

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