FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 23, 2022 

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ICYMI: Atlanta Journal Constitution: “New Law Means Big Relief For Small Budgets Of Medicare Patients”

 Reverend Warnock Successfully Fought To Include His Proposals To Cap Insulin Costs At $35 Per Month For Georgians On Medicare And Cap The Annual Cost Of Prescription Drugs For Seniors 

Valerie Taylor, A Former Nurse From Stone Mountain: “It Was A Pretty Grim Outlook For Me Without This Law Being Enacted.”

Atlanta, GA – Last week, a new report in the Atlanta Journal Constitution spotlighted how Reverend Warnock’s proposals to lower prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare and cap the cost of insulin at $35 per month for Georgians on Medicare will provide “big relief” for seniors struggling to afford their health care costs. The measures became law as part of the Inflation Reduction Act last week. 

This relief for Georgians comes after Reverend Warnock’s months-long fight in the U.S. Senate to lower the cost of prescription drugs. The Inflation Reduction Act also includes health care savings for Georgians and finally gives Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices on behalf of Georgia seniors. The legislation will lower costs, bring good-paying jobs to Georgia, all while reducing the federal deficit. 

Read more about this prescription drug relif for Georgians here and below:

Atlanta Journal Constitution: New law means big relief for small budgets of Medicare patients

Ariel Hart — August 19, 2022

Key Points: 

• Arlene Hines carefully counts her pills each month, determined to “make them last” by skipping the doses she can’t afford. Hines, 68, has a lot of help paying for those drugs through her Medicare plan. Just not enough.

• “With food and paying the (doctor visit) co-pays along with getting the medicine, it’s just $39 is a whole lot of money for me,” she said, discussing the price of just one of her eight prescriptions for nerve damage, high blood pressure and other conditions. “With an income of $1,200 a month … That’s a lot.”

• On Tuesday, President Joe Biden signed a new law that could help thousands of Georgia Medicare beneficiaries like Hines. Known as the Inflation Reduction Act, it’s a sprawling collection of new policies covering issues including climate change, taxes and health care. It features new drug spending rules for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for those 65 and older and some younger people with disabilities. Medicare insures 1.8 million in Georgia, including 1.4 million on a plan specifically for drugs.

• The Medicare changes will roll out starting next year and over the next several years through 2030. Those on Medicare who pay for the prescription drug benefit known as Part D will pay less in a variety of ways: Out-of-pocket drug costs will be capped at $2,000 annually, and a 5% co-pay that used to apply to drug prices in perpetuity will go away. The first change to take effect, in 2023, will be a new cap of $35 monthly on the cost of an insulin prescription — the only drug named in the legislation that will receive its own price cap.

• Over the long term, Medicare can negotiate the prices drugmakers charge on a few costly drugs, which is expected to save billions of dollars for both Medicare patients and the federal government.

• Dr. Melissa Dillmon, an oncologist who works at the Harbin Clinic in Rome, treats many older cancer patients and was glad to see movement.

• “We have patients that are: ‘Do I pay my grocery bills? … How do I feed myself and pay for my medications?’” said Dillmon. She said some of her patients are facing $10,000 to $20,000 a month in co-pay costs for their chemo drugs.

• Dillmon says some patients go into bankruptcy or spend their entire retirement fund to cover drug costs. Her clinic works hard to prevent that from happening. The three-doctor office also employs two workers devoted to finding charity assistance for their patients, including those on Medicare Part D who can’t afford their prescription co-pays. When the $2,000 annual drug price cap goes into effect in 2025, Dillon says, that will be a very big deal.

• Valerie Taylor, a former nurse from Stone Mountain, was a full-time caretaker for her mother with dementia when she first had warning signs of blood cancer in 2018. Uninsured, Taylor also didn’t qualify for medical coverage under Georgia’s Medicaid rules. She bargained with her longtime doctors to treat her, but reached her credit card limit before her diagnosis was even completed.

• She had to rely on a charity to pay for treatment, including an operation. She’s now in remission.

• But Taylor’s short life expectancy due to cancer quickly qualified her for Medicare based on disability, and she now has Part D drug coverage — that means if she has a relapse, she won’t be able to turn to charity again. One pill she took daily for her cancer treatment was partially covered by her insurance, but cost nearly $1,000 a day just for the co-pay. For her, the $2,000 annual cap on drug costs that takes effect in 2025 is a huge improvement.

• “It was a pretty grim outlook for me without this law being enacted,” Taylor said.

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