Bravo to former Congressman Gil Gutknecht for his Veteran’s Day op-ed in Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller news site urging “policy makers in general and conservatives in particular [to] fight to defend and preserve” 340B. Read it here and spread the word about it on Twitter and other social media.
Gutknecht, a Minnesota Republican, served six terms in the U.S. House starting in 1994. While in office, he made a name for himself for his dedication to holding drug companies responsible for the prices they charge.
“Big Pharma has long made sure Americans pay the highest prices in the world by blocking the importation of the same medicines that they sell overseas for a fraction of the cost,” he writes in the new essay. “It gets worse. The pharmaceutical industry has dispatched its small army of lobbyists to derail a key drug discount program called 340B.”
“Because it’s funded by drug companies, the 340B program isn’t a government handout,” Gutknecht notes. “It’s a mechanism that helps hospitals and other healthcare providers better serve needy patients. And because it allows poor patients to get the medicines they need, they’re more likely to recover and avoid returning to the emergency room on the taxpayer’s dime. It also saves money for Medicaid, the state-federal partnership that helps low-income and disabled patients.”
“That’s good news for fiscal conservatives and small-government advocates alike,” he says.
Gutknecht currently consults with a number of companies and organizations, including Safety Net Hospitals for Pharmaceutical Access.