JustCare

Tag: HELP

  • Senator Sanders pushes for greater investment in community health centers

    Senator Sanders pushes for greater investment in community health centers

    Daniel Payne and Burgess Everett report for Politico on Bernie Sanders latest big push on the health care front. As Chair of the Senate HELP committee, Sanders is moving to put $190 billion more into our health care system over five years. The money is sorely needed.

    Senator Sanders’ plan includes $130 billion for the federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), often referred to as community health centers. You can find these community health centers throughout the country. If you are not familiar with FQHCs, they offer free and low-cost primary care services, sometimes even vision and dental services. And, FQHCs are  known for their high quality care.

    Sanders would put another $60 billion into expanding our health care workforce, including $15 billion for graduate medical education initiatives. His goal is to increase access to primary care.

    Of late, FQHCs have not had adequate funding. And the health care workforce has been shrinking to the point where there are staff shortages throughout the country.

    The question is whether Bernie Sanders can bring along other Democrats and Republicans to address health care inadequacies in the US, especially the shortage of primary care providers, dentists and nurses. Unfortunately, it’s not likely in this Congress. Other Sanders’ priorities include lowering the price of prescription drugs and increasing the minimum wage.

    The HELP Republican leader, Bill Cassidy, says he wants a “reasonable solution” for addressing these health care issues. He sees the money Sanders proposes for the FQHCs as too much and unrealistic. The Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee is working on legislation to keep FQHC funding at current levels for the next five years. That’s a lot lower than what Senator Sanders is proposing.

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  • HELP committee focuses on Moderna pricing of COVID vaccines

    HELP committee focuses on Moderna pricing of COVID vaccines

    Now that the COVID-19 public health emergency is coming to an end and the government will stop covering the cost of COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots, Moderna is planning to raise the price of its vaccines significantly. Senator Bernie Sanders’ HELP Committee is holding a hearing on Moderna’s pricing of these vaccines.

    Make no mistake, COVID-19 vaccines cost almost nothing to manufacture, about $3 a vaccine. The big cost of tbe vaccjnes is for the research and development. And, while there are ongoing costs as the virus mutates, to date, taxpayers have funded a significant share of the research and development costs.

    Over the last few years, mRNA COVID vaccines have saved millions of lives. Not only did our government fund a large share of their development costs, it paid for them at a bulk price so that Americans who wanted the vaccine did not face financial barriers. Now, with the end of the public health emergency, Americans will be forced to pay for these vaccines outright or through higher insurance premiums and copays.

    Moderna says it will raise the price of its COVID vaccines to as high as $130, a price that will be unaffordable for millions of Americans. Many Americans will die or get very sick as a result.

    Moderna claims higher vaccine prices support ongoing research and development costs, which are several billion dollars. It says its patient assistance program will cover costs for those who can’t afford the vaccine. But, a patient assistance program is no substitute for a fairly priced vaccine. Most people are not able to navigate through the administrative hurdles these programs pose.

    For sure, the COVID-19 vaccines have value. But, that is no justification for hiking the price of a drug every American needs to protect themselves from the sometimes deadly consequences of the COVID-19 virus. Moreover, government scientists and taxpayers contributed billions of dollars to the development of these vaccines.

    Moderna contributed to the vaccine’s research and development, but it was hardly the sole inventor. Moderna has tried to bury the fact that researchers at the National Institutes of Health invented a critical part of the vaccine.

    Moderna’s CEO and other executives are now billionaires, and Moderna has raked in tens of billions of dollars in profits from the COVID vaccines. Now, Moderna plans to hike prices, which is its right under the law. It’s due time our government ended that right and set fair drug prices in the US, as governments do in virtually every other wealthy country.

    Congress should not allow pharmaceutical companies to set prices for any drugs, let alone life-saving drugs. By so doing, Congress discriminates against Americans with low incomes who desperately need these drugs. Until Congress takes charge of drug pricing, our government should continue buying vaccines for Americans and providing them free of charge to ensure everyone has access to them.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Bernie Sanders’ HELP committee priorities

    Bernie Sanders’ HELP committee priorities

    Jonathan Cohn reports for the Huffington Post on Bernie Sanders’ move to chair the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee. Under Sanders’ leadership, the HELP Committee will have several new priorities.

    Sanders has been a senator from Vermont for 17 years. Before that, he served as a Congressman in the House of Representatives for 13 years. And, he started his political career as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont.

    Sanders was able to focus significant attention on the need for Medicare for all in the US beginning with his run for president in 2016. As of now, Sanders does not intend to make Medicare for all a top priority for the HELP Committee because most Senators do not yet support it.

    Committing additional funding to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) or “community health centers” is one Sanders priority for the HELP committee. FQHCs provide primary care at low cost throughout the nation to some 30 million people. They are  run by the government and physicians employed by the government.

    FQHCs serve primarily lower-income individuals, although they must take all comers. Almost 50 percent of them are located in rural areas. They serve about 20 percent of rural Americans.

    You can find out the closest FQHC to you by clicking here. You might be able to get low-cost dental care and prescription drugs at your FQHC. Some also offer wellness classes.

    Republicans have traditionally supported FQHCs because they offer direct medical services. The government is not funding insurance coverage. And, there is recent precedent for bipartisan health care legislation–a mental health care bill sponsored by Senators Stabenow and Blunt.

    Senator Sanders will also make the cost of prescription drugs a top priority. He would like prices in the US linked to prices in other wealthy nations. He plans to hold hearings that expose the high profits, high prices and bad acts of the pharmaceutical industry.

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