There are 144 million Americans with chronic disease at stake. Instead of playing Washington D.C. political games with expensive opposition research collected to shame passionate hard-working patient advocates and advocacy organizations, David Mitchell and Patients for Affordable Drugs should be focused on doing the real work of getting patients access to the treatments and services they need. All of their funding ($12 million+ and counting) comes from a single source – a hedge fund billionaire who hates pensions and pharma. P4AD say they are not bought and paid for, but reality says otherwise. Their focused campaign against pharma and the advocacy organizations and programs they support, all funded by one foundation with an agenda is the textbook definition of an astroturf PR campaign that is bought and paid for.
Their expensive political opposition research disguised as a “report” is a clear attack on patient advocacy organizations’ stance or lack thereof on H.R. 3. Speaking for Patients Rising and Patients Rising Now, we support bi-partisan efforts to lower out of pocket healthcare costs and advance medical innovation for the millions of patients who need it. Negotiating with Medicare is a talking point that polls well. It’s not a true solution to the supply chain problem. We stand by that belief.
Patients Rising Now’s Advocacy Master Class helps patients learn to advocate for themselves and others — Patients like Valerie in California who is helping to make changes for other diabetics, Adam in Idaho, a Dad living with a rare condition, who wants to see the Medical Nutrition Equity Act passed at the federal level, and Lisa from Florida whose advocacy is informed by her decades of caregiving. For more Patients Rising Stories, we welcome you to visit PatientsRisingStories.org — these are real stories, from real patients, not doctored messaging campaigns to fit a desired talking point.
We work to help people live to see their children graduate, see their grandchildren born, and see tomorrow. We do this work at the federal and state level in partnership with others to make sure patients get their voices included in policy discussions. We live this mission every day, one patient at a time through the Patients Rising Concierge, which connects patients to local resources and experts.
Let us be clear: with a large volunteer staff of caregivers and patients with chronic disease, Patients Rising believes in giving these stakeholders a say at the federal and state level to advocate for or against policies that affect them. Their stories and their positions are theirs and theirs alone.
We will continue to do this important work on behalf of patients and caregivers. No swamp report will deter this mission.
