Americans for Prosperity to FDA: lift needless barriers to medical devices that save lives
The COVID-19 crisis has exposed a tragic reality. America’s health care system actually stands in the way of doctors, nurses, and medical researchers helping people. It’s why the vast majority of Americans share our conviction that it is critical to empower medical professionals and innovators with the flexibility to get people the care they need.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services took early and decisive action to temporarily remove barriers between medical professionals and patients, in order to save lives. If those barriers weren’t needed then, why would they be needed now?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears to have taken notice. The agency has released a proposal to make permanent its temporary policy of waiving certain unnecessary bureaucratic requirements for 84 kinds of medical devices in order to save lives during the ongoing pandemic.
Americans for Prosperity strongly supports this effort. This week, the organization responded to the FDA’s request for information about its proposal. In its comment, AFP wrote, “based on the well-documented safety of these devices, we agree with the FDA that their temporary exemption from 510(k) pre-market notification should be made permanent.”
The letter added that “AFP also strongly supports efforts to streamline and improve medical device approval and clearance procedures generally. If a medical device, drug, or therapy has been shown to be safe, patients and doctors should be allowed to try it. As a general rule, bureaucratic rules unrelated to safety should never be allowed to come between patients and their doctors.”
Breaking down barriers to care is a major element of Americans for Prosperity’s Personal Option health care plan. If you agree that we need to make it easier and less costly for patients to access the care they need, check out APersonalOption.com and sign our petition today!
