Patients and Clinicians Extol Vital Drug Discount Program
April 25, 2017—The 340B drug discount program helps thousands of uninsured, underinsured and low-income Americans every day. Both patients and providers speak out about the program’s importance and impact in a new series of short videos.
Michael Asip had a heart attack. Richard Bey suffered mysterious internal bleeding. Deborah Scott was diagnosed with colon cancer. Paul Haskins has diabetes. None had health coverage. All are doing well now thanks to 340B.
Dr. Sam Ross oversees a hospital that serves Baltimore’s poorest patients. Dr. Robert Chapman runs a cancer center in Detroit – part of the city’s only non-profit hospital. For providers like these that treat all patients regardless of ability to pay, the 340B program is essential to helping them supply discounted/free medications and clinical services to the underserved. Despite the fact that the 340B program accounts for only 2 percent of the U.S. drug market, the pharmaceutical industry is lobbying to undermine it. This includes limiting the number of patients and providers that are eligible for the discounts.
“These are real patients and practitioners talking about a small federal program that makes an outsized difference to community health,” said Ted Slafsky, President and Chief Executive Officer of 340B Health. “340B is a solution that’s already in place helping hospitals care for the needy. Rather than lobbying Congress and the administration to gut the program, drug companies should embrace it and be part of the solution to affordable health care.”