Press Release: Survivors for Solutions Founder John Czwartacki Chosen to Participate in CMS’ “Listening Sessions”
CZ will speak on behalf of all patients, urging CMS to understand the life-threatening implications that the IRA’s Medicare Drug Price Negotiations will have on millions of lives.
WASHINGTON, DC – John "CZ" Czwartacki, Founder of Survivors for Solutions, has been selected to address nearly every one of the ten selected drugs at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) patient listening sessions. As part of the CMS’ implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) Medicare Drug Price Negotiations, the agency plans to hold ‘Patient-Focused Listening Sessions’ from October 30 to November 15. In these sessions, CZ will emphasize how the very medical innovation jeopardized by these price controls is responsible for saving millions of lives, including his own, and how patients will be impacted by these “negotiations.”
Although CZ does not take any of these drugs himself, as a patient with an incurable autoimmune disease requiring a series of new medications and the challenges therein, he will share an experience sought in these sessions. Additionally, these sessions will be imperative, setting the tone for how CMS considers all patients’ concerns and whether they value innovation or government cost-saving measures more.
“I am looking forward to participating in these listening sessions and hope to bring a voice to those American patients, both present and future, who rely on cutting-edge cures and treatments,” said Czwartacki. “More than a year after the IRA was passed, patients are finally asked how such a disastrous policy will impact us. While our input was warranted before the program’s implementation began, my goal for these sessions is to show through my own experience how important medical innovation is to improving health outcomes and paint a picture of what a world void of new treatments and cures could mean for vulnerable patients. Without these medical advancements, patients will be left without the hope of a better future.”
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About Survivors for Solutions
Survivors for Solutions is a nonprofit, nonpartisan patient advocacy organization created by John Czwartacki to stand up for those who are in need of solutions for their health challenges but are too often without a voice in Washington. Survivors for Solutions envisions a future that puts an end to illness through advancing cures for all diseases. Survivors for Solutions is determined to put a spotlight on the steps toward reaching that future.