When Congress added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare nearly two decades ago, the bill explicitly prohibited the program from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for the prices of the life-sustaining drugs that millions of enrollees take every day.

AARP has made the argument for many years that with more than 50 million Americans getting their medications through Medicare, if the program was allowed to negotiate prices, the power of those numbers would yield a much better deal for Medicare beneficiaries and for taxpayers, who ultimately foot the bill for the lion’s share of the medication costs.

In Colorado and across the country, millions of seniors will finally get relief because of the Inflation Reduction Act, which for the first time in decades loosens Big Pharma’s relentless grip on the wallets of seniors when it comes to the vital medicines they need.

After years of calling on Congress to make prescription drugs more affordable, we won the fight for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices and help millions of seniors, including 930,000 Colorado Medicare recipients, save money on their medications. That, in and of itself, is huge. But the new law, passed by Congress and quickly signed by President Joe Biden, will significantly help in other ways. It will also limit the cost of insulin to $35-a-month for people on Medicare and put a $2,000 annual cap on what seniors in Medicare Part D plans will have to pay out of pocket for their medications. The new law makes shingles and other vaccines free, and it keeps the heat on drug companies by penalizing them if they raise prices higher than the inflation rate.

It’s estimated the law will save Medicare, and therefore American taxpayers, hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 10 years by lowering out-of-control drug prices.

This is a historic victory, and it couldn’t come at a more needed time. For too long, Americans have had to pay three times more for their medications than people in other countries pay for the same drugs. And with the impact of inflation on all of us, seniors who worked hard their entire lives, raising families, building this country and giving back to their communities, shouldn’t have to choose between filling a prescription or buying gas, groceries or rent.

When I think of this, I think of Jennifer, a Coloradan who is forced to make those difficult choices. She told our national office, “I am homeless and living in my car in the Colorado winter because I can’t afford both rent and prescriptions.”

For millions of seniors, this new law is genuinely life changing. On behalf of our 670,000 AARP Colorado members, we thank Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow and Ed Perlmutter for the courage and leadership they demonstrated by standing up to Big Pharma and supporting this milestone legislation.

However, as sweet as this victory is, the fight is not over. Drug companies are already spending millions to overturn the new law and stifle competition so they can drive up their high profits and keep charging Americans the highest prices in the world for the drugs they need.

We will keep fighting here in Colorado and across the country, and we won’t back down until all Americans 50-plus can afford their medication. It’s the right thing to do, and older Americans deserve nothing less.

Bob Murphy is the State Director at AARP Colorado in the Greater Denver area and served as Mayor of Lakewood from 2007 to 2015.