Bismarck, ND (AP) – A group supported by Elon Musk leads advertisements for conservative republican legislators in several states for supporting a federal drug pricing program. Nobody seems surprised at the efforts like the legislators themselves.
The video display by building America’s future is entitled “Trump Underminers”. It focuses on the Federal 340b program and says that it is “a disaster now” and “Trump 340b repaired”.
The ads group five legislators in Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Tennessee, which accuses them of prescribing the expansion of the program. It has been one of the first signs since Trump has returned to the white house of a group that has been connected to musk that the Republicans pursue in individual states.
Legislators say they want to facilitate rural hospitals and do not understand what is behind the criticism or why the group, which is a massive donor from Musk, publishes them.
Here is a look at the allegations of the advertisement and the secret behind it:
What is the 340b program?
As part of the program, the pharmaceutical manufacturers must, according to the American Hospital Association, grant discounts to hospitals who take care of non -insured persons and who are poorly insured and who are delicate, and grant discounts. The program was expanded in rural hospitals in 2010.
In the advertisement on local television it says: “Some Republicans undermine Trump in their state and try to force an expansion of 340b.”
The news also states that the program “helps to finance gender -specific transitions for children, abortion methods and health care for illegals”.
The Senator of Nebraska, Brian Hardin, who is mentioned in the advertisement, said that these claims have no truth.
The program was in a center of a long -long lobby struggle between hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, whereby each page is trying to involve the legislator when maintaining or reforming benefits.
What do legislators think?
The claims in the complaint lead to Hardin whether pharmaceutical companies could be behind the efforts.
“It only drives my speculation that someone has brought a fashionable information about Musk and said:” Please throw your money behind us, “said Hardin.
The Republican MP of North Dakota, Jon Nelson, said the only truthful statement in the advertisement was the spelling of his name. Nelson said he introduced an invoice in this session with the aim of continuing the 340b program with the presence.
Nelson said the pharmaceutical industry wants to get rid of the program because “long history, they don’t want to sell their drugs with a discount.”
Everything is puzzling, said Nelson, because he knows no organized efforts to end the program.
“There is absolutely no undercoat that takes place here because there was no action from Washington to change 340b that I know,” said Nelson. “We do not undermine anything that takes place in Washington.”
The Republican Senator of Kentucky, Senator Stephen Meredith, said it was not the 340b program.
“My bill is about the fact that Kentucky Healthcare providers who serve a disproportionate number of economically disadvantaged people. Pharmaceutical manufacturers who arbitrarily and moody 340b medication and 340b discounts are mainly discriminated against in rural communities, which are legally due to these qualified health service providers, ”said Meredith in a statement.
As the others said, Hardin said that he was for his bill, which would save the access of hospitals in Nebraska to the program.
Hardin said that the advertisement has been running in Nebraska for about three weeks, but has done nothing to violate his bill. It returned 41-0 last week from the first three of three debates.
Why does this group do that?
That is unclear. The establishment of America’s future did not respond to an e -mail in which information about her efforts was searched for. One spokesman for another musk -financed political group confirmed a telephone message, but did not answer questions. The X profile of America’s future could not be sent.
A spokesman for the PHRMA Pharmaceutical Trade Group said that the organization had neither plans nor plans to give money for the establishment of the future of America.
“Our position on this topic was clear: Large, tax-friendly hospitals and clinics use 340B medication to increase their profits at the expense of patients, employers and taxpayers,” said Sarah Ryan, senior manager for public affairs at Phrma.
According to the media persecution company Adimpact, the advertisement was broadcast in shipment markets in Nashville, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.
The establishment of America’s future is also behind misleading advertisements and text messages to the voters when the election of the Supreme Court in Wisconsin. The group was also the individual donor of a political group, which last year against the opposing advertisements in Michigan and Pennsylvania on the position of Vice President Kamala Harris to Israel.
The structure of America’s future published a photo of a immense truck outside of the North Dakota Capitol in Bismarck in February and bears the news “Tell North Dakota Republican: STOP Subprulted gender transitions for children” and “340b -subsidy gender transitions for children”.
In 2023, then GOV. Doug Burgum signed a law that prohibited gender operations and treatments for transgender children.
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Matthew Perrone, Associated Press Writers, in Washington, Margery A. Beck in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Bruce Schreiner in Frankfort, Kentucky, contributed to this story.
