Community Health Centers (CHCs), which serve 32.5 million patients nationwide, have a proud tradition of ensuring access to affordable, high-quality care for all in the communities we serve regardless of ability to pay – and that includes life-saving medications like insulin and injectable epinephrine.
For over 30 years, the 340B program has enabled CHCs to deliver affordable and comprehensive primary care to patients who need it most. By law, regulation, and mission, every penny that CHCs save through 340B discounts is used to make medication affordable for low-income patients and to expand access to preventive care services. Unfortunately, in recent years CHCs have lost critical resources from the 340B program, jeopardizing patients’ access to affordable medications and comprehensive primary care.
We are grateful that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and the Trump Administration have publicly expressed their support for CHCs’ 60-year-record of fighting chronic disease and lowering healthcare costs. We cannot emphasize enough how vitally important the 340B program is for the working families who need affordable medications and depend on CHCs for care, and we are concerned that proposals outlined in the Order could inadvertently limit these patients’ access to comprehensive primary care.
As safety-net providers committed to ensuring affordable access to prescriptions and to primary care, CHCs are already part of the solution – not the problem. America’s CHCs look forward to working with the Trump Administration to reform the program and improve our ability to make Americans healthy through comprehensive, affordable medicines and care for the patients we serve.
Follow this link to read the Executive Order.