{"id":29284,"date":"2026-02-19T15:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&p=29284"},"modified":"2026-02-23T03:49:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:49:38","slug":"sen-ossoff-cosponsors-bipartisan-bill-to-stop-insurance-companies-from-delaying-needed-medical-care","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-cosponsors-bipartisan-bill-to-stop-insurance-companies-from-delaying-needed-medical-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Ossoff Cosponsors Bipartisan Bill to Stop Insurance Companies from Delaying Needed Medical Care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C. <\/strong>\u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is cosponsoring a bipartisan bill to prevent insurance companies from delaying needed medical care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ossoff cosponsored the bipartisan Safe Step Act<\/em>, introduced by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), to help prevent insurance companies from delaying Georgians\u2019 access to medical care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health insurers often use a practice called step therapy (also called \u201cfail first\u201d) that requires<\/a> patients to try and fail on a lower-cost medication before they are allowed to access the medication recommended and prescribed by their doctor. This practice can<\/a> delay<\/a> necessary treatment and increase patients\u2019 health care costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bipartisan Safe Step Act<\/em> would limit the use of step therapy and require insurers to create a standardized and transparent process that allows patients to access medically necessary treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToo often, insurance companies dictate the health care Georgians can receive,\u201d Sen. Ossoff said.<\/strong> \u201cThat is why I am working with Republicans and Democrats to prevent insurance companies from delaying Georgians\u2019 access to the medical care they need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ossoff continues to push for increased access to health care for Georgia families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November, Sen. Ossoff pushed to pass<\/a> the bipartisan Accelerating Kids\u2019 Access to Care Act<\/em> that he cosponsored to ensure kids covered by Medicaid in Georgia face fewer delays when receiving specialty care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April, Sen. Ossoff cosponsored<\/a> the bipartisan Resident Education Deferred Interest (REDI) Act<\/em>, which would allow recent graduates of medical school to defer their student loan payments without interest while they serve in a medical or dental internship or residency program, aiming to reduce the shortage of medical professionals in Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, Sens. Ossoff and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced<\/a> the Rural Veterans Transportation to Care Act<\/em> to help more veterans in rural areas get transportation to VA health facilities and access the health care benefits they\u2019ve earned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> to read the Safe Step Act<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is cosponsoring a bipartisan bill to prevent insurance companies from delaying needed medical care. Sen. Ossoff cosponsored the bipartisan Safe Step Act, introduced by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), to help prevent insurance companies from delaying Georgians\u2019 access to medical care. Health insurers often use a practice […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29284","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/29284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/29284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29285,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/29284\/revisions\/29285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}