During a Wednesday Senate Aging committee hearing, Senator Reverend Warnock highlighted the dangers of the temporary federal funding freeze issued by the Trump Administration and its impact on health care costs for seniors
Senator Reverend Warnock also focused on the federal funding freeze’s potential negative impact on food affordability and accessibility
Senator Reverend Warnock during the hearing: “This Trump freeze will hurt Georgia’s seniors, make life more expensive for them, including our veteran seniors who need care”
Hearing expert witness Alex Lawson: “The price of prescription drugs for decades, pharmaceutical corporations have been able to raise the prices year after year, enormously above the rate of general inflation. They do it because they can. They do it for greed alone and seniors pay the consequence of this”

Watch video of Senator Reverend Warnock’s questioning at Wednesday’s Senate Aging committee hearing HERE
Washington, D.C. – Today, during a Senate Aging Committee hearing, Senator Reverend Warnock continued to highlight the importance of lowering costs for seniors and working-class Georgians. The hearing, called Making Washington Work for Seniors: Fighting to End Inflation and Achieve Fiscal Sanity, brought attention to several Trump Administration policies and executive orders that are likely to increase everyday costs for seniors, making their medication, utility bills, and other everyday needs more expensive.
“Seniors, particularly those of modest means, rely on these funds [vouchers programs] to help pay for food, medicine, in-home care, rent, energy and heating bills in the dead of winter, and many other federal programs that ensure dignity throughout a person’s life,” said Senator Reverend Warnock during the hearing.
During the hearing, Senator Warnock also addressed the importance of extending Premium Tax Credits, which were established through the Affordable Care Act, citing by example that a senior Georgia couple, with a household income of $80,000, would see their annual premium go up by nearly $17,000 if the credits aren’t extended.
“Mr. Lawson, how would extending the enhanced PTC support the fiscal sanity of seniors?” Senator Warnock asked Alex Lawson.
“It would be fiscal insanity not to extend it and think that it’ll do anything other than drive millions of older Americans into poverty because you can’t just increase a bill $16,000 and expect that money to just come from nowhere,” said Lawson.
Senator 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 of his proposals in the law capping the cost of insulin at $35 a month for Medicare patients and capping the cost of prescription drugs for seniors at $2,000 a year. The Senator also pushed for solutions to close the coverage gap. Last year, Senator Warnock introduced the Capping Prescription Costs Act,legislation to expand the cap of annual out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families. Senator Warnock remains committed to preserving and protecting access to health care for all Georgians.
Watch the Senator’s full remarks and line of questioning HERE.
See below the transcript the exchanges between Senator Warnock and the Aging Committee witness.
Senator Reverend Warnock (SRW): “Today’s hearing, discussing the consequences of high prices on seniors, could not be more timely. On Monday evening, the Trump Administration ordered a total illegal freeze of federal taxpayer funds going out to communities and Georgians. This illegal funding freeze includes programs that are essential to seniors with lower and fixed incomes. I’m thankful that a federal judge temporarily halted this illegal freeze yesterday afternoon, but these programs are still at risk. The Trump Administration, to be very clear, has rescinded the OMB memo. They have not rescinded the executive order.”
“Mr. Lawson will the pauses to payments for nutrition programs or the Older Americans Act make food more affordable and accessible for seniors?”
Alex Lawson (AL): “No, Senator, it would do the opposite.”
SRW: “So what they did on Monday night won’t help?”
AL: “It will hurt.”
SRW: “How about a pause on payments for federal housing vouchers? Will that help?”
AL: “That will not help. That will also hurt.”
SRW: “And what about a pause on energy assistance funds?”
AL: “Same answer. This won’t help at all. It will only hurt seniors.”
SRW: “I would agree with that. Seniors, particularly those of modest means, rely on these funds to help pay for food, medicine, in-home care, rent, energy and heating bills in the dead of winter, and many other federal programs that ensure dignity throughout a person’s life.”
“This Trump freeze will hurt Georgia’s seniors, make life more expensive for them, including our veteran seniors who need care.”
“Mr. Lawson, how can the federal government help bring down costs for seniors?”
AL: “One of the best ways is to focus in on one of the key drivers, that is really the rock, in the rock and the hard place, that seniors are in.”
“The price of prescription drugs, for decades, pharmaceutical corporations have been able to raise the prices year after year, enormously above the rate of general inflation.”
“They do it because they can. They do it for greed alone and seniors pay the consequence of this.”
“That’s too often having to cut their pills in half, or forgo their prescriptions, or face the choice of am ‘I going to pay my rent, or my heating bill, or be able to afford my drugs this month.”
“That is the reality that millions of Americans face. Now, President Biden and Democrats in Congress passed a bill that allows Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time ever, and there will be a reduction in the prices of some specific drugs. But what we could do is expand that to all drugs. Why get ripped off on any drugs?”
SRW: “Absolutely. And I’m proud that in that provision which caps the cost of prescription drugs, my insulin bill, which caps the cost of insulin to no more than $35 of out-of-pocket costs per month for seniors.”
“Insulin shouldn’t be expensive, and the fact that it is, prior to our engagement in this area, speaks to the outsized influence of Big Pharma in our politics.”
“On his first day in office, President Trump signed a wave of executive orders, and one of these executive orders rolled back an initiative that would empower Medicare prescription drugs to offer generic drugs that treat chronic conditions for a flat $2 co-pay.”
“Mr. Lawson, would capping the cost of medication at $2 help with seniors’ ability to afford other essentials like groceries?”
AL: “Absolutely. There’s no doubt at all on that.”
SRW: “How do high prescription drug costs affect seniors also dealing with inflation?”
AL: “When a senior [is] forced to try to go get groceries and they can’t afford those groceries on the $1900 average Social Security cost per month, if their drug prices are going up month after month, 13 percent, they’re going be less able to afford those groceries. And we know that this price cap works because there is now a $2000 price cap on prescription drugs in the same bill that put in negotiation and the freedom that gives seniors the anxiety of ‘will I be able to afford my next bag of groceries’ is enormous.”
SRW: “Absolutely.”
“The Affordable Care Act established a premium tax credit to help everyday Americans afford their healthcare costs. Several years ago, Democrats in Congress passed legislation increasing the value of the premium tax credits to help families better afford health care while dealing with inflation. But if Congress fails to extend these tax credits before the end of the year, a 60-year-old couple in Georgia with a household income of say $80,000 will see their annual premium go up by $16,798.”
“Mr. Lawson, how would extending the enhanced PTC support the fiscal sanity of seniors?”
AL: “It would be fiscal insanity not to extend it and think that it’ll do anything other than drive millions of older Americans into poverty because you can’t just increase a bill $16,000 and expect that money to just come from nowhere.”
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