By Patrick Demmer

As a pastor and community advocate in Colorado, I have spent more than four decades walking alongside people in moments of hardship, families facing illness, seniors choosing between prescriptions and groceries, and working parents stretched to the breaking point. In those moments, access to affordable, local health care isn’t an abstract policy debate. It is a lifeline, which is why the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program matters so much to our communities.

Created by Congress more than 30 years ago, 340B requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide discounts on outpatient drugs to hospitals and clinics that serve a high number of low-income and uninsured patients. In return, those manufacturers gain access to the highly lucrative Medicare and Medicaid markets, which is a straightforward bargain that costs taxpayers nothing!

The intent of 340B is equally straightforward in that it provides safety-net providers to stretch scarce resources, serve more patients, and offer services that otherwise would not exist. Hospitals use 340B savings to fund cancer care, diabetes treatment, behavioral health services, rural outreach, free or discounted medications, and the wraparound care insurance often does not cover. For uninsured patients, that can mean receiving lifesaving drugs at little or no cost.

Importantly, insurers and other payers do not pay more for drugs because of the participation of a hospital in 340B. The savings stay with providers and are reinvested directly into patient care which is not a windfall but is a stabilizer especially for hospitals operating on the margins. Yet today, this long-standing bipartisan program is under serious threat.

Instead of honoring the agreement Congress put in place, some pharmaceutical companies are attempting to rewrite the rules mid-stream. Through restrictive contract pharmacy policies and a proposed rebate scheme, manufacturers are seeking to shrink the program and wrest authority away from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the federal agency tasked with overseeing 340B. These actions undermine the law, create chaos for providers, and jeopardize care for the very people 340B was designed to help.

As a person of faith, I find this deeply troubling. Scripture calls us to care for the sick and protect the vulnerable and not to tilt the scales further against them. If 340B is crippled, hospitals that depend on it will inevitably face impossible choices: cutting services, reducing staff, or closing altogether. When that happens, communities lose access to care, and the costs do not disappear — they are shifted to taxpayers through emergency bailouts, higher premiums, and overcrowded emergency rooms. Weakening 340B is not fiscally responsible. It is shortsighted.

That reality helps explain why more than 20 states, many by overwhelming bipartisan margins, have acted to protect 340B within their borders. Lawmakers from both parties recognize that preserving this program is essential to maintaining access to care, particularly in underserved urban and rural communities.

Colorado should expect the same leadership at the federal level.

I am personally calling on U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans to stand with patients, providers, and communities of faith by ensuring that 340B is protected as Congress considers health care and budget legislation. This is not about partisanship. It is about keeping faith with a promise that has worked for decades and continues to deliver real results for real people.

We all know our health care system has deep challenges, many without easy solutions. But 340B is one area where Congress got it right. It is a smaller program that provides outsized relief — and hope — for countless families across Colorado.

Protecting 340B means protecting access to care close to home. It means supporting hospitals that serve everyone, regardless of ability to pay. And ultimately, it means living out our shared values of compassion, stewardship, and justice.

Now is the time to speak up and ensure this vital program endures.

Patrick Demmer is First Administrative Assistant Colorado Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Church Of God In Christ, serving the church and community as a community activist for more than 40 years. He’s also served as president of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance and numerous community boards across Colorado.