Health care in Colorado is at a crisis. Democrats and Republicans fortunately have reached across party lines to solve problems and help people in every corner of our great state. Senate Bill 25-71, a bipartisan measure I am co-sponsoring, is an example of folks — regardless of party registration — coming together to do right by our people.

Senate Bill 25-71 protects and enhances the 340B drug discount program. It will ensure hospitals and clinics are able to stay open and serve people. Established in 1992 by a bipartisan congress, 340B helps safety-net and rural health care providers by ensuring where pharmaceutical companies bill Medicaid and Medicare for drugs they sell, they also are obligated to sell their products at a discount to safety-net and rural providers who serve a high number of disproportionate patients. Those providers are then allowed to charge market price for medications they acquired and keep the difference to use it to pay for doctors and nurses, new life-saving equipment, and more. 340B costs taxpayers exactly nothing. The program is especially important for addressing patients’ mental health challenges in Colorado.

Pharmaceutical companies hate the program, because it prevents them from achieving maximum profits. But it’s vitally important, especially for poorer, minority and otherwise marginalized communities here. Big drug industry players are hoping Coloradans will help them nix the program. I’m here to say Coloradans regardless of party affiliation or where they live should refuse to play ball with them on this issue — even as we fully recognize and appreciate drug industry innovation has led to the creation of life-saving medications.

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Throughout my career, I have been very open about my struggles with mental health and how crucial it is to be able to seek out the care and treatments I need. Treatment for mental health challenges is essential health care people should be able to receive whenever and wherever they need it. We have a crisis in America in which mental health remains too inaccessible to too many people, and that is especially true in rural areas throughout the nation, many of which are right here in Colorado. 340B is part of the solution. Opponents want to pretend it is the problem and made baseless claims including those that appeared in an opinion piece spuriously blaming the hospitals for the abuses of large drug companies that ran on Feb. 21 in Colorado Politics.

No matter what your economic status, Coloradans have a right to affordable health care and to be treated in their community. The continued unimpeded operation of 340B is a huge part of ensuring this. Without 340B, we know many of the providers we rely on to ensure Coloradans can receive lifesaving care to treat and prevent heart attacks, cancer, injuries sustained in life-threatening road accidents, early labor and conditions like pre-eclampsia, and, yes, mental health crises would be at risk of closure.

A recent study showed somewhere around half of rural hospitals are operating at a loss. The same study also showed a large decrease in access to obstetrics care here in Colorado for residents of rural areas. Senate Bill 25-71 will help keep the doors to these facilities open.

It’s important to understand some history here. For years, pharmaceutical companies have refused to offer federally required discounts mandated by 340B, while trying to chip away at the legislation at the national level. States began to pass legislation fortifying the discounts to protect their citizens. Pharmaceutical companies responded by suing these states, even going so far as trying to take Arkansas to the Supreme Court to fight their legislation. The Supreme Court declined to take the case, thereby upholding the Arkansas 340B legislation. What everyone who works on health care policy has learned along the way is not just that 340B is vital and a great deal for taxpayers —we’ve also learned states stepping up to protect 340B is an important, legally valid way to bolster health care at a time when the nation still faces voluminous health care challenges. And that it’s an approach that works well in both blue states, like ours, and red states, like Arkansas and Louisiana.

The Colorado legislature and our governor need to deliver for poorer, minority and otherwise marginalized communities across the state and ensure continuing health care access, whether in big cities like Denver, or out in the most rural parts of our state. Results will always trump rhetoric, and protecting 340B now is a vital way to lean into our values and show Coloradans of all stripes we are working hard for them. That is why I am so proud to co-sponsor the bipartisan Senate Bill 25-71.

Dafna Michaelson-Jenet represents Colorado’s District 21 in the Colorado Senate, where she serves as president pro tempore and vice chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. She formerly served in the Colorado House of Representatives.