Prior to representing the great people of East Tennessee in Congress, I served for 30+ years as a licensed community pharmacist. Healthcare issues and solving patient problems are near and dear to me.
As a member of the House Republican Doctors Caucus, I understand the importance of reducing health care costs and increasing access to care. And I know how Obamacare has wreaked havoc on our healthcare system, driving up costs, making the system more complex and confusing, and empowering bureaucrats and insurance companies over patients. Our current healthcare system is deeply flawed, forcing folks into insurance plans that don’t fit their needs and away from doctors they trust.
Unlike the government-run overreach of Obamacare, I believe in personalized medicine as part of a reformed and modernized healthcare system, one where patients and healthcare providers have more ownership and control over their own healthcare dollars and decisions. This sort of modernized healthcare system should include:
- Common-sense patient protections
- Competition and consumer choices
- Price and quality transparency
- Reducing our reliance on China and other adversary countries
- Addressing health professional workforce shortages
- Rooting out waste, fraud and abuse
- Incentives to lower or restrain costs while improving quality, access and innovation
Guided by these principles, as a member of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce I am taking an active role in developing and supporting meaningful legislation and policies that will make a difference for individuals, families, patients and providers in East Tennessee.
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Medicare has secured and made more affordable important access to healthcare for generations of American workers and their families. I support preserving and protecting benefits for current and near-term retirees, but due in large part to changing demographics, Americans living longer and the continued rise in health care costs, Medicare faces a sizable gap between scheduled benefits and the revenues needed to fund them.
Here is additional information about my legislative work to address Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) and behavioral health.
Knowing the devastating toll that opioids and other substance abuse has taken on so many individuals and families in East Tennessee and across the country, I welcomed the opportunity to join the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force.
As a native East Tennessean and career community pharmacist, I know first-hand the healthcare challenges that face rural America. More than 46 million Americans, or 15 percent of the U.S. population, live in rural areas. Compared with their urban counterparts, rural Americans experience lower life expectancy and poorer health status.
Having been a small business owner myself, I know firsthand the impact of rising healthcare costs, and I’ve also experienced the burdensome paperwork to manage health insurance plans on the back end. Congress must address the burdens small businesses face when providing healthcare benefits to their employees, and Washington should not stand in the way of workers getting the health care coverage that’s best for them and their families.
As a pharmacist in East Tennessee for 30+ years, it’s personal for me that Congress act — and act soon — to lower the costs of prescription drugs. There’s no doubt we have to reform the ways PhRMA companies price prescription medicines and sometimes manipulate the system.
Each and every week, I hear from constituents about their struggles to afford their care and navigate the healthcare system, and they desperately want Congress to take action to make our system more simple, transparent and affordable.
U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-1st, introduced the Patient Right to Shop Act on Tuesday, July 18, a bipartisan bill that will prohibit gag clauses in pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) contracts to ensure patients can conveniently access information on the cost of their prescription drugs.
Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger recently introduced the Patient Right to Shop Act, a bipartisan bill which will prohibit gag clauses in pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) contracts.
To compare the costs of prescription drugs, patients often use third-party transparency tools provided by their health plan or self-insured employer.
These third-party tools enter into data-sharing agreements with insurers, as well as PBMs, to provide patients with online cost-saving insights, such as out-of-pocket costs and copayment, regarding their care.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger introduced the Patient Right to Shop Act, a bipartisan bill which will prohibit gag clauses in pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) contracts to ensure patients can conveniently access information on the cost of their prescription drugs.