The high cost of living is a continuing burden for working families in Pueblo and across Colorado. A federal program intended to help low-income patients afford prescription drugs — often one of the biggest strains on family budgets — has been hijacked by large, wealthy hospital chains. It’s time to restore this program to help our neighbors who desperately need it. 

The 340B program was created by Congress in the 1990s for all the right reasons. But visit under-served communities in Colorado, including Pueblo with our minority communities and the disparities in the accessibility and quality of health care are readily apparent.  

The 340B program was designed to provide incentives for the creation of clinics and pharmacies in these communities to offer medicine at deeply discounted prices to residents close to their homes. It requires companies that manufacture medicines participating in the Medicare or Medicaid program to sell their drugs at these discounts to eligible health care facilities.

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As someone who has been actively helping veterans in need and others in our area, anything that helps improve the affordability and accessibility of prescription drugs is extremely valuable. 

In vulnerable communities, the reality is medical conditions can worsen because patients can’t afford their drugs. Or they reduce the dosage to make the medicines last longer, preventing the drug from doing its job.

This is a needless tragedy since billions of dollars are spent on discounted drugs these men and women need. After decades, if this program had operated as intended, we should have seen a marked reduction in the inequitable access to affordable, discounted drugs.  

Here’s the problem:

Incentives in the 340B program encourage the creation of clinics and contract pharmacies because the financial benefits to the hospital companies that operate them are massive. Facilities in the 340B program purchase drugs at the mandated discounts — discounts that can reduce drug prices to as little as a penny. 

It is not required for the providers to pass savings along to patients or insurers, which is why hospital profits are soaring — at the expense of our most vulnerable patients. The hospitals sell discounted medicines through their contract pharmacies at full price in affluent areas of Colorado. 

For example, over an eight-year period ending in 2019, the percentage of 340B pharmacies in vulnerable, disadvantaged communities actually declined. Today, nearly two-thirds of these facilities are created in less-diverse, wealthier communities

That’s a nice payday — for big companies, not for low-income patients in southern Colorado and across America.  

It is also why the cost of the program has mushroomed to more than $50 billion per year, making it one of the federal government’s most expensive prescription drug programs. 

It is a travesty.

Even worse, as hospital profits soar they are giving a small pittance to charity care. There are hospitals in Colorado that devote less than 1% of net patient revenue to helping the indigent. 

Fortunately, more and more policymakers are catching on to the abuse of this program and are seeking reforms. Pro-patient legislation may be introduced in the Colorado legislature in the session soon to convene at the state Capitol.

But don’t expect the big health care chains to roll over and accept these needed reforms. Throughout the nation, they have used their considerable clout within state legislatures to enact new laws to keep the status quo in place — and keep the gravy train on track. 

It’s guaranteed they will attempt to do so this year in our state.  

It is critical Coloradans fight back — and stand up for fairness and for saving the 340B program.   

The reality of the 340B program and its failure to direct deeply needed drug discounts to vulnerable, under-served populations cries out for reform. Let’s hope vulnerable patients win, and common sense prevails at our state Capitol and across the country.

Paul Hendricksen, of Pueblo, is an advocate for veterans and is a community activist. A combat veteran, he served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan totaling 30 months.