Insurance companies must now count copay assistance toward deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. Health and Human Services recently stopped fighting a 2020 federal court ruling that prevents insurance companies from shifting health care costs on patients through copay accumulators. The Pulmonary Hypertension Association has worked for years to end copay accumulators, which allowed insurance companies to profit from copay assistance without reducing patients’ financial burdens.

The Medicaid program is under threat in Congress. The budget bill could end health care benefits for nearly 11 million people. The bill also includes burdensome requirements that could restrict Medicaid eligibility. “[Medicaid] makes the difference between patients having access to care or going without,” says Kassandra Olgers, a PHA advocate and physician assistant at West Virginia University.