The People’s Response Act

SUPPORT FOR BANNING MEDICAL DEBT CREDIT REPORTING: Letter of support to Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Bureau is moving to ban medical debt from appearing on credit reports used for credit underwriting. The burden of medical debt is difficult for many who suffer from medical challenges even with insurance but is crushing to those who are either uninsured or who have limited income. Black and Latino communities are disproportionately impacted by medical debt on their credit reports. STAND UP FOR COMMUNITY SAFETY (COMMUNITY SAFETY AGENDA: Letter to Congress advocating for a Community Safety Agenda that prioritizes prevention, compassion, and evidence-based solutions, not punitive approaches that take effect long after harm has occurred. The Community Safety Agenda includes: 1. The Peoples Response Act (H.R. 4699): This act proposes the establishment of a Division on Community Safety within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Its primary goal is to allocate flexible funding for local initiatives aimed at interrupting violence, responding to civilian crises, preventing abuse, and other related efforts. 2. The Mental Health Justice Act (H.R. 6451): This legislation advocates for redirecting interventions for mental health crises away from law enforcement agencies. Instead, it suggests deploying trained social workers and professionals to handle such situations, thereby promoting more effective and compassionate responses to individuals in crisis. 3. The Break the Cycle of Violence Act (H.R. 5003): This act focuses on investing in community-based violence intervention programs. By addressing the underlying root causes of violence, such as socioeconomic disparities and lack of access to resources, this legislation aims to provide targeted interventions and support services within communities to mitigate and prevent violence. These acts collectively aim to foster safer, healthier communities by prioritizing prevention, addressing systemic issues, and promoting compassionate responses to crises. MEDICARE ACCESS FOR PEROPLE REENTERING THE COMMUNITY AFTER INCARCERATION: Letter encouraging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to finalize the rule to improve access to Medicare for people on parole, probation, and other statuses. This is part of (CMS) Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) proposed rule. PATENT LAW THAT NEGATIVELY IMPACTS ABILITY TO GET LOWER PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES: (S.2220) PREVAIL ACT AND (S.2140) PERA (PATENT ELIGIBILITY RESTORATION ACT: Group letter urging Congress to address the high cost of prescription drugs, which increases costs for patients, employers, and insurers, as well as our state and federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid. One in four people in the United States have difficulty affording medication. Congress has made some good strides in addressing drug prices over the past few years, but more can and should be done. The sign-on urges members of the Senate to vote NO on PREVAIL and PERA. PREVAIL: This bill curtails an important mechanism that allows interested parties an opportunity to challenge patents that they have evidence that should never have been granted in the first place. It offers a swifter, less expensive way to challenge a drug patent before a panel of patent experts in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) through the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Although a wrongly granted patent can be challenged in federal courts, these challenges take years and come with a median cost of $3.5 million per case. Meanwhile we all are deprived of access to a lower-priced generic or biosimilar competitor medication. Additionally, the bill seriously undermines citizens ability to promote competition by challenging patents. Members of the public have no standing in regular courts to challenge drug patents. The PTAB is our only recourse to asking the PTO to reconsider a patents validity. Yet, it is the public who bear the brunt of drug costs in co-pays, deductibles, and insurance premiums when an invalid patent continues to block generic and biosimilar competition. PRERA: The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act expands patent eligibility far beyond what weve ever had since the U.S. patent law was created. PERA would allow patents on natural phenomena, laws of nature, and abstract ideas. Patents and monopoly pricing that goes with it, should be reserved for true novel human innovation as patent law originally intended. Aspects of nature and general concepts are not inventions but merely the elements used when creating something new that can then be submitted in a patent application. PERA opens the door to allow an individual or corporation to acquire exclusive rights to aspects of nature and information about our own bodies. This is a radical departure from historical and international norms and the implications are far-reaching and untested. At a minimum, by expanding patent eligibility beyond the limits we have today, pharmaceutical companies would have increased ability to create dense patent thickets and more opportunities to obtain a patent which could be abused with product-hopping tactics. Rather than expanding the subject matter for patents so broadly, Congress should ensure the patent applications that are filed are not being used simply to game the system. MEDICARE ADVANTAGE: Two sign-on letters addressing private insurance companies systemic delays and denials of health care to the people on their Medicare Advantage plans. The letters call on Congress and the Administration to continue to rein in overbilling in the Medicare Advantage program and use the costs savings to improve traditional Medicare by adding a low out of pocket cap and expanding benefits to dental, vision and hearing. You can use this form to sign-on to both of them. The main difference in the letters is that the Congressional letter includes only legislative recommendations and the letter to President Biden includes both legislative and administrative policy recommendations.

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Government targets: Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, President of the U.S., SENATE