Virginia Families Left Without Relief as Governor Blocks Bill to Lower Drug Prices

05.20.2026 / Statement

Virginia Families Left Without Relief as Governor Blocks Bill to Lower Drug Prices

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger today vetoed the Affordable Medicine Act, landmark legislation to lower prescription drug prices for patients. The Governor had previously proposed amendments that would have undercut the bill's authority and ability to deliver savings for families. After the legislature rejected those changes, she has now blocked the legislation for the year. Families USA expresses deep disappointment in the Governor's decision and vows to continue the fight for meaningful drug pricing reform, and issued the following statement by its executive director, Anthony Wright:

"Governor Spanberger's veto is a blow to Virginia families who struggle every day to afford their medications. After the legislature rightly rejected the Governor's attempt to delay its implementation, she has now blocked it entirely - leaving Virginians without relief from skyrocketing prescription drug costs.

"This bipartisan legislation would have made Virginia the first state in the nation to systematically extend Medicare's negotiated drug prices to people in private health plans and in Medicaid automatically, without requiring a lengthy drug-by-drug affordability review. Instead, Virginians will continue paying top dollar for their medications.

"The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program has already proved that direct negotiation works. Prices on the first 25 negotiated drugs are 38% to 85% lower than list prices. States like Colorado, Maryland, and Minnesota are already aligning their own upper payment limits to those prices. Virginia had the opportunity to go further and move faster than any of them. That opportunity has now been vetoed away.

"While Governor Spanberger has argued that prescription drug affordability boards are costly and ineffective, evidence from neighboring Maryland tells a different story. Maryland's Prescription Drug Affordability Board just last month applied an upper payment limit for the medication Jardiance, saving state and local governments $320,000 every year and delivering thousands of dollars in savings for patients at the pharmacy counter. And just this week, Maryland took action to institute a payment limit on Ozempic, to an estimated savings of over $5.8 million to taxpayers. These savings that Medicare enrollees and Marylanders will benefit from are what this legislation would have delivered for Virginia families.

"We will not stop fighting alongside our partners in Virginia to ensure that patients are put over profits. Families across the Commonwealth and the country need relief from unaffordable prescription drug prices now, and we remain committed to achieving that goal."