The next round of Medicare drug discounts arrives in January
CMS finalized these prices with manufacturers back in late 2025. January 1 is when 15 more drugs — including Ozempic and Wegovy — actually get cheaper for Medicare. What the negotiated price is, and isn’t, before you compare 2027 plans this fall.
This isn’t breaking news — CMS finished negotiating this round of Medicare drug prices with manufacturers in late 2025, and it hasn’t changed since. What makes it worth covering now is the date attached to it: the second round of negotiated prices takes effect January 1, 2027, which lands right in the middle of this fall’s plan-comparison season.
The negotiation itself is Medicare doing something it was barred from doing for decades: for the first time under a 2022 law, the government directly negotiates prices with drug manufacturers for a short list of the highest-cost, highest-volume drugs in Part D each year. Round one covered ten drugs, effective since January 2026. Round two is the second annual group, effective January 2027, and a third round is already underway for 2028.
| 15 drugs | Selected for the second round of Medicare drug price negotiation, agreements finalized with manufacturers by November 2025. |
|---|---|
| January 1, 2027 | When the negotiated prices actually take effect. |
| Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus | The GLP-1 diabetes and weight-loss drugs in this round, about a 71% cut for each — Medicare’s negotiated price is $276.78 for a 30-day supply of Ozempic or Rybelsus, and $385.63 for a Wegovy 4-pen package (the two are priced separately, not one shared figure). |
| 38% – 85% | The discount range across all 15 drugs versus list price. CMS estimates the negotiated prices cut Medicare’s own spending on these drugs by 44% (about $12 billion a year against 2024 spending levels), or 36% ($8.5 billion) once existing manufacturer rebates are factored in. |
| ~5.3 million | Medicare enrollees who used one of these 15 drugs in the year CMS used to calculate the savings; CMS projects about $685 million of the total savings reaching beneficiaries directly as lower out-of-pocket costs in 2027. |
What “negotiated price” actually means for you
The number CMS announces is the Maximum Fair Price — what Medicare and Part D plans pay for the drug, not necessarily the amount that shows up at your pharmacy counter. What you actually pay still depends on your specific plan, your deductible, and where you are in the coverage year — the same structure covered on the $2,100 drug cap page. A lower negotiated price lowers the cost the whole system is paying, which over time affects premiums and formularies, but it is not a guarantee of a specific copay.
Concretely, that means a negotiated price changes the number underneath every phase of Part D coverage — the deductible, the initial coverage period, and the point at which the annual out-of-pocket threshold kicks in. Whether that translates into a smaller bill for you personally depends on how your plan structures cost-sharing for that drug: a plan that charges a percentage of the drug’s cost (common for higher, “specialty” tiers) passes a lower negotiated price straight through as a lower copay. A plan that charges a flat dollar amount per tier doesn’t automatically do that — the flat copay is set by the plan, not derived directly from the negotiated price. Either way, the negotiated price is real; what it does to your specific bill is a question your plan’s formulary answers, not this article.
Also on The Second Half Guide The five-minute rule: why scammers need you to act right now Modern fraud isn’t an intelligence test. It’s an attack on your decision time — which is why one boring habit beats memorising every scam. Read it →A negotiated price is what Medicare pays the manufacturer. What you pay at the counter is still decided by your plan, your deductible, and the calendar.
Why the GLP-1 drugs are the headline of this round
Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus are all versions of the same drug, semaglutide, from Novo Nordisk — prescribed at enormous volume for type 2 diabetes and, in Wegovy’s case, weight management. Round two also includes Dupixent, a widely prescribed treatment for eczema, asthma and related conditions. Round one, effective since January 2026, covered ten drugs including blood thinners and diabetes medications like Eliquis (list $521, negotiated $231) and Jardiance (list $573, negotiated $197). Round two’s roughly 71% cut on the semaglutide drugs is a bigger single reduction on a more widely prescribed class of medication than anything in the first round.
Round one is also the closest thing to evidence for how round two will actually play out, since it has now run for most of a year. CMS estimated that if round one’s negotiated prices had applied to 2023 spending, the program would have saved roughly $6 billion, with beneficiaries saving about $1.5 billion out of pocket in 2026. That’s a projection built on a prior year’s spending, not a measured tally of 2026’s actual bills — and it’s an aggregate figure, shaped by formulary placement and where each person was in their coverage year. Round two’s own $12 billion estimate above works the same way: a projection against 2024 spending, not a guarantee of what 2027 actually delivers. Still, round one’s savings are the closest thing to a track record this program has, and the mechanism producing round two’s estimate is the same one.
What to actually check this fall
- Check whether a drug you take is one of the 15 selected for round two — CMS publishes the full list, and this piece names only the highest-volume ones.
- A lower negotiated price does not automatically mean a lower tier or copay on your specific plan next year. Confirm your actual 2027 cost through your ANOC or the Medicare Plan Finder, not through the headline discount.
- If you’re comparing plans for 2027, a drug moving to a negotiated price is one more reason to re-run the Plan Finder with your actual prescription list rather than assuming last year’s best-fit plan is still the best fit.
- Round one’s prices (Eliquis, Jardiance and eight others) have already been in effect since January 2026 — if you take one of those, the discount is not new for 2027.
The decision here was made almost a year ago. What changes on January 1 is that it stops being a number in a CMS press release and starts being the price your plan is actually paying — which is the part worth knowing before, not after, you pick a 2027 plan. A round three list, covering 15 more drugs with prices effective January 1, 2028, was already announced in January 2026 — this program is now a recurring annual event, not a one-time change, and each fall’s plan comparison is likely to have a new round to account for going forward.
This is general information, not personal insurance, financial or legal advice. We report the rules, the numbers and the deadlines as clearly as we can, but plan details, coverage decisions and premium costs depend on your specific plan. Treat this as a good place to find the right questions, not a substitute for your plan’s own materials or a licensed adviser.
Where these facts come from
Checked on 11 September 2026 against the sources listed below. Dollar limits and program rules change — if you're reading this well after that date, verify the numbers at the links below.
- CMS — Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program: Selected Drugs for Initial Price Applicability Year 2027 (fact sheet) — https://www.cms.gov/files/document/factsheet-medicare-negotiation-selected-drug-list-ipay-2027.pdf
- CMS — Selected Drugs and Negotiated Prices — https://www.cms.gov/initiatives/medicare-prescription-drug-affordability/overview/medicare-drug-price-negotiation-program/selected-drugs-negotiated-prices
- Managed Healthcare Executive — CMS negotiates a 70% discount for Ozempic and Wegovy — https://www.managedhealthcareexecutive.com/view/cms-negotiates-a-70-discount-for-ozempic-and-wegovy
- Medicare Rights Center — Negotiated prices take effect for ten drugs in 2026 — https://www.medicarerights.org/medicare-watch/2025/10/09/negotiated-prices-take-effect-for-ten-drugs-in-2026
- KFF — Key Facts About Medicare Drug Price Negotiation — https://www.kff.org/medicare/key-facts-about-medicare-drug-price-negotiation/
- 24/7 Wall St. — Medicare Negotiated Ozempic Down to $274 for 2027. Her Part D Plan Still Sets the Copay. — https://247wallst.com/personal-finance/2026/08/21/medicare-negotiated-ozempic-down-to-274-for-2027-her-part-d-plan-still-sets-the-copay/
Edward Silva
Edward spent more than forty years as a computer professional — long enough to pick up one useful occupational habit: when somebody hands you a summary, go and read the actual documentation. He started The Second Half Guide after noticing that most writing aimed at people his age was either talking down to him or quietly selling him something, and that the plain facts — the dates, the thresholds, the dollar figures — were somehow the hardest part to find.
He's married, with two grown sons, both married themselves. He is not a financial adviser, an attorney or an insurance agent, and this site doesn't tell you what to do with your money. It tells you what the rules actually say, and links to where he checked.