Even though many Americans are fortunate enough to have insurance coverage, this is not always a guarantee that their costs are fully covered.
In a country as affluent as ours, every citizen should be able to live a healthy life, free from pain and illness. The fact that so many people with insurance have to scrimp and save to afford the treatments they need points to a real flaw in our nation’s health care system. While some leaders will tell you that this problem can be solved by fixing the prices of prescription medications, that’s not really getting at the root of the problem. Medications cost billions to develop and price setting could put future innovation at risk.
If we want to make sure that all Americans are able to get the prescriptions and therapies that work for them, we need to make real changes that cut to the core of this issue: regulating middlemen and insurers. While pharmaceutical researchers and scientists create the cures that patients need, these actors exist simply to hog savings and raise prices.
I am asking everyone to call your Oregon representatives and urge them to fight for common sense insurance reforms like capping out of pocket costs and regulating middlemen. Let’s make sure that everyone can get the help they need.
Andrea Anderson, Milwaukie
