After more than a decade working as a registered nurse in geriatric care, I saw how easily older patients can be forgotten in our health care system. Many live on fixed incomes and simply can’t fight for themselves. They trust hospitals to look out for them, but that trust is often misplaced.

The federal 340B Drug Pricing Program was created to make medicines less expensive for patients in need. Unfortunately, too many hospitals use it as a profit engine instead of a patient-support tool. They buy discounted drugs and sell them at full price while seniors struggle to fill prescriptions.

The 340B ACCESS Act could bring accountability to this system and make sure savings actually reach patients. That’s the kind of reform we need, unlike the “Most Favored Nation” policy being floated in Washington, which is seemingly taking up the lion’s share of the focus. Pegging U.S. prices to foreign countries risks reducing access and could even lead to shortages, and it won’t do anything to make hospital care more attainable for patients.

Seniors deserve better than bureaucratic experiments. I hope our state’s leaders in Congress will focus on fixing what’s broken here at home by supporting the 340B ACCESS Act.

Veronica Comfort
Fogelsville, PA