AHA Statement on President's Drug Pricing Speech

Contact:  Marie Johnson, (202) 626-2351
               Colin Milligan, (202) 638-5491

Rick Pollack
AHA President and CEO
May 11, 2018

The AHA applauds President Trump and his administration for taking the initiative to tackle the high price of prescription drugs. The U.S. health care system is in the midst of a prescription drug spending crisis that threatens both patient access to care and the ability of hospitals and health systems to deliver the highest quality of care.  

The AHA appreciates many of the actions that the Administration has proposed, such as incentives to speed up the arrival of generic drugs into the market and reducing out-of-pocket costs for patients. These are good first steps and additional actions are needed. The AHA has specific recommendations to further increase competition, transparency, access and value, while fostering innovation. We look forward to closely reviewing today’s proposals and continuing to work with the Administration and the Congress to make progress on lowering drug prices.

We also urge the Administration and the Congress to oppose any efforts to scale back the 340B drug savings program, which for over 25 years has been critical in helping hospitals stretch scarce federal resources to expand access to health care services in communities with a significant number of vulnerable patients. 340B is a critical tool in the toolbox that provides drugs at lower prices to those on the front lines of patient care.

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