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The healthcare cost problem is real, and I know it personally, having lost immediate family members to disease. That experience has made me pay close attention to whether the reforms getting attention in Washington are focused on the right problems.
The 340B program is a good place to look to address affordability. It was built to help hospitals serve the patients who need it most through access to discounted drugs. What's happened instead is that large, tax-exempt hospital systems have absorbed those discounts with little accountability for where the savings go. Rural communities are increasingly losing access to care while big systems expand on 340B revenue.
Requiring transparency about how 340B discounts flow from institutions to patients could produce real, measurable relief. I'd like to see Congress focused on the reform in the 340B program to ensure transparency and accountability are in place...that could make a measurable difference for working families.
KIM DEMATTEO-MACDONALD
Olyphant
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom