Your 2026 drug bill stops at $2,100
There's now a hard ceiling on what your prescriptions can cost you this year — plus the toll text that's really a trap, and the $2,080 that may be sitting in your name.
Happy Wednesday. A quick note before we start: I know a lot of you time your prescriptions around the calendar — filling a little, skipping a little, dreading the pharmacy counter in an expensive month. This week I've got news that changes that math in your favor. There's a hard limit now on what your drugs can cost you all year, and most people don't know exactly where it kicks in. Let's fix that. Then a text scam I want you to be able to spot in two seconds, and some money that might already have your name on it.
There's a ceiling on your drug costs now — and after $2,100, you pay nothing
Here's a number worth taping to the fridge: $2,100. That's the most you can pay out of pocket for your covered prescriptions in all of 2026, no matter how many drugs you take or how expensive they are. Once your out-of-pocket spending on covered Part D drugs hits $2,100, you automatically move into what Medicare calls "catastrophic coverage," and for the rest of the calendar year your covered medications cost you $0 (Medicare.gov).
This applies whether you have a standalone Part D plan or a Medicare Advantage plan with drug coverage. It's the second year of this cap — it was $2,000 in 2025 — and it's the biggest change to retiree drug costs in a generation. For anyone on a pricey brand-name drug for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or a blood thinner, this is the difference between a frightening open-ended bill and a known, survivable maximum.
Here's my honest take, and why I'm leading with it in July: we're at the halfway mark of the plan year, which is exactly when this stops being theory and starts being real money. If your drugs are expensive, you may already be close to that $2,100 line without realizing it — and the moment you cross it, everything covered is free until January. So the worst thing you can do right now is quietly skip doses or split pills because you're scared of the cost. You may be far closer to the free zone than you think, and you can't get there if you're not filling your prescriptions.
There's a second piece a lot of people miss. If the problem isn't the yearly total but the shock of one big month — say a $600 refill in a single trip — Medicare now lets you spread your out-of-pocket drug costs into smaller, predictable monthly payments across the year, through the free Medicare Prescription Payment Plan (Medicare.gov). One caveat I want to be straight with you about: this plan does not lower what you owe in total — it only spreads it out. It's a cash-flow tool, not a discount. Used right, it keeps you from getting hit with the whole bill in one brutal month.
→ Your move: grab your most recent "Explanation of Benefits" from your drug plan (it comes the month after the pharmacy bills them) or call the member-services number on your plan card and ask one question: "How much of my $2,100 out-of-pocket maximum have I already met this year?" If you're close, keep filling — the finish line is real. If a single month's cost is the problem, ask to enroll in the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan. And if money is genuinely tight, ask the same rep whether you qualify for Extra Help, which can lower Part D costs even further — the details are at medicare.gov/basics/costs/help/drug-costs. |
Scam of the Week: the toll text that's really a hook
You get a text: you owe a few dollars for an unpaid toll, and you'd better pay right now or face a late fee and a suspended registration. There's a link. It looks official. It is not — and the small dollar amount is the whole trick, because it's low enough that you might just pay it to make it go away.
This one has exploded. Americans reported $470 million lost to text scams in 2024, and fake toll notices are one of the biggest categories, with scammers impersonating tolling programs from coast to coast — E-ZPass, SunPass, FasTrak, and the rest (FTC). The goal usually isn't the $6.99 — it's the credit-card and personal information you type into the fake payment page next (FTC).
The one tell: real toll agencies don't chase you by surprise text with a pay-now link. Overdue-toll notices come by U.S. Mail first, and a legitimate web address ends in .com or .gov — not a string with odd hyphens or a foreign country code (FCC). If a text is pushing you to act in the next five minutes, that urgency is the scam.
→ Do this: don't tap the link, and don't reply — not even "STOP" or "N," because any reply tells them the number is live. If you're genuinely unsure whether you owe a toll, look up your toll agency's real website yourself and check your account there. Then delete the text, and report it: forward it to 7726 (spells "SPAM"), and file it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or the FBI's IC3.gov. |
Money You're Owed: the $2,080 that might have your name on it
Let's end where we started — with money moving toward you. Right now there's an estimated $70 billion in unclaimed property sitting in state coffers across the country: forgotten savings accounts, uncashed paychecks and pension distributions, insurance payouts, utility and rental deposits, tax refunds, contents of old safe-deposit boxes. About 1 in 7 Americans has some, and the average claim returned is around $2,080 (NAUPA). This isn't a settlement with a deadline or a catch — it's your own money the state is holding until you ask for it. In fiscal 2024 alone, states handed $4.49 billion back to the people it belonged to.
Older adults are the most likely to have some, precisely because you've had more decades of moves, closed accounts, changed jobs, and lost track of a policy or a deposit somewhere along the way.
→ Do this: go to MissingMoney.com — the only free national database endorsed by the state unclaimed-property administrators (NAUPA) — and search your name. It's free, it searches 49 states at once, and it takes about a minute. Search every variation of your name (maiden name, middle initial, old nicknames) and your late spouse's or parents' names if you handle their affairs. One rule that never changes: a real state never charges a fee to give you your own money, so ignore any "finder" who wants a cut to claim it for you. |
Your turn: have you gotten one of those unpaid-toll texts lately — and did it almost get you? Hit reply and tell me what it said. I read every one, and the ones you flag help me warn the rest of the family.
And if this was useful, forward it to someone who's rationing their prescriptions or hasn't checked MissingMoney.com in years. Five minutes could put real money back where it belongs.
Talk soon,
— Ellen Marsh, Editor, Retirement Shield
Retirement Shield is educational information only — not financial, tax, or legal advice. We will never ask you for an account number, Social Security number, password, or payment.