This recent article from The Wall Street Journal makes it clear that, to substantially reduce drug costs for patients, Congress must prioritize reforming 340B hospitals over imposing foreign price controls on U.S. drug companies.
The Journal details how many hospitals join the government’s 340B drug discount plan to save money on prescription drug costs. However, instead of sharing those discounted drug prices with the predominantly low-income patients they care for, as 340B instructs them to do, the hospitals will retain the savings for themselves. Patients continue to pay full price.
Congress should be pressing ahead with hospital reforms via the 340B ACCESS Act, which will force hospital pricing transparency and prevent these facilities from shoring up their revenue on the backs of sick people. Drug costs could quickly drop if Congress makes these simple reforms.
However, Congress is currently focused on partisan conversations around foreign price controls and vaccines, which won’t do anything to help patients access the treatments they need. Instead, to protect patients from unethical hospitals and high drug prices, Congress must support the 340B ACCESS Act.
Dylan Snyder
