The Capping Prescription Costs Act would cap annual out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families

In 2022, Senator Reverend Warnock successfully capped the cost of prescription drugs for Medicare recipients

This new legislation, building on Senator Reverend Warnock’s provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, extends out-of-pocket caps to the commercial health care market

The Capping Prescription Costs Act introduction coincides with the introduction of Senator Warnock’s Bridge to Medicaid Act, which would provide a temporary health care option for people in the Medicaid coverage gap to get subsidized private health care until non-expansion states like Georgia finally expand Medicaid

Senator Reverend Warnock: “Long before I came to the U.S. Senate, I was fighting to make health care more affordable and accessible. Struggling families shouldn’t have to skip refills, ration prescriptions, and risk their health just to afford the medications they need to survive”

Senator Casey: “Prescription drug costs are like a bag of rocks tied around the necks of millions of Americans, weighing them down every single day”

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), a member of the Special Committee on Aging, and Bob Casey (D-PA), Chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, introduced the Capping Prescription Costs Act, which would lower prescription drug costs for millions of Americans. The bill would place annual caps on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs—$2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families. Senator Warnock’s bill builds on his successful provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, which capped prescription drug cost-sharing for Medicare Part D beneficiaries, extending the savings to the commercial health care market.

“Long before I came to the U.S. Senate, I was fighting to make health care more affordable and accessible. Struggling families shouldn’t have to skip refills, ration prescriptions, and risk their health just to afford the medications they need to survive,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “In a nation as rich and powerful as the United States that should never be the case, so I’m proud to join Senator Casey to introduce the Capping Prescription Costs Act that will help families afford the prescriptions they need to live healthy, full, independent lives.”

“Prescription drug costs are like a bag of rocks tied around the necks of millions of Americans, weighing them down every single day,” said Chairman Casey. “My new bill will place a cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for Americans with private insurance, building on the success of the Inflation Reduction Act and lightening the load that has been weighing down Americans for far too long.”

Earlier this week, Senator Warnock also introduced the Bridge to Medicaid Act, legislation to provide health care coverage to the hundreds of thousands of Georgians in the health care coverage gap. The bill would provide a temporary health care option for people in the Medicaid coverage gap to get subsidized private health care until non-expansion states, like Georgia, finally expand Medicaid.

Both bills were introduced before a Thursday Senate Committee on Aging hearing focusing on health care transparency and the importance of lowering costs and empowering patients. During the hearing, Senator Warnock chronicled his decades-long work championing the fight to make health care more affordable and accessible. He also talked about his State of the Union guest, Heather Payne an ER nurse stuck in the coverage gap, and why bills like the Bridge to Medicaid Act and the Capping Prescription Costs Act, would allow Heather and millions more around the nation to get the care they desperately need.

“For those who want to make this a red-blue issue, most of the states have expanded [Medicaid], blue state and red states. But as those conversations continue, people like Heather are caught in the crosshairs,” said Senator Reverend Warnock at the Aging committee hearing. “I’m a pastor, but those who aren’t moved by the moral argument – and that would be sad — let me underscore the economic argument, a report from the Georgia Health Initiative, in March 2024, found that closing the coverage gap would create 51,264 jobs in the first three years of full expansion.”

Over 60 percent of American adults take at least one prescription drug, with 25 percent of adults taking four or more. Yet Americans often pay more for the same prescription drugs than people in other countries, and due to the cost burden, American patients often cannot afford their medications as prescribed. This results in patients skipping doses, cutting doses in half, or taking over-the-counter medications instead of their prescriptions. One study found that 31 percent of patients did not take their medications as prescribed due to cost. The new $2,000 cap on cost-sharing for individuals and $4,000 for families will apply to all of the 173 million Americans who have private health insurance.

Senator Reverend Warnock has long championed efforts to expand affordable health care access, starting with his advocacy to close the health care coverage gap in Georgia. In the Inflation Reduction Act, Senator Warnock secured two proposals included in the final version of the bill —provisions from his bill to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for Medicare patients, and his plan to cap the cost of prescription drugs for seniors at $2,000 a year. The Senator also pushed for solutions to close the coverage gap. Senator Warnock is committed to preserving and protecting access to health care for the most vulnerable. 

Full bill text of the Capping Prescription Costs Act is available HERE.

Full bill text of the Bridge to Medicaid Act is available HERE.

Watch video of Senator Reverend Warnock’s questioning at Thursday’s Senate Aging Committee hearing HERE.

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