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Friend -

I wanted to write you today about an intersection of two issues that hit close to home: health care and supply chains.

My mom’s struggle to afford health care and prescription drugs is a major reason why I ran for office. She passed away in 2011 of ovarian cancer, after struggling to afford health care for years because she happened to have a preexisting condition. Separately, since the beginning of the pandemic – when I found myself at my kitchen table on the phone with a Chinese middleman in the middle of the night trying to get PPE for our hospitals – one of my main focuses has been on our supply chains that are overly dependant on places like China.

We’re now experiencing the shortage of two cancer treatment drugs — just the latest episode in the story of our dependent supply chains. One single facility in India gets shut down, and we can’t get the drugs we need to treat our most vulnerable patients. I cannot imagine what I would have done if my mom had to postpone her chemo treatments because of supply chain issues.

The bottom line is that we are far too dependent on other countries for the critical things we need here at home — like ingredients needed to make the drugs so many people depend on.

The long-term bright side here is that this is an issue we are working on, on a bipartisan basis, in Congress. I founded the bipartisan Domestic Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Caucus to address this issue specifically, and we are working on ways we can bring at least some of this critical manufacturing back home.

However, overhauling our supply chains is not a quick process, and in the meantime we need to take immediate action to ensure cancer patients have access to the treatments they need. That’s why I’m currently in contact with both the FDA and hospitals across Michigan to best decide what emergency actions we need to be taking. There are options, and if the factory isn’t up and running soon, we may need to exercise them.

This is the type of work I do as a Congresswoman: I hear from hospitals and patients about the need, and we jump in to act. I hope to do the same in the Senate. But getting there and fighting for these issues is going to take a lot of work. So please, if you believe in taking action, not just words, chip in $3 today.

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Elissa


 

PAID FOR BY ELISSA SLOTKIN FOR MICHIGAN

P.O. Box 4145
East Lansing, MI 48826

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Elissa Slotkin served in the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense. Use of her job titles and photographs during service do not imply endorsement by the Central Intelligence Agency OR the Department of Defense.