Tell HHS: Don't Let Taxpayers Get Fleeced!

Years ago, the federal government began contracting with private companies to produce smaller, cheaper ventilators to have on hand in the event of a pandemic. The company that eventually developed the ventilator hasn’t delivered a single one to the government and is instead selling the model at a huge markup overseas. The feds also failed to maintain the ventilators they already had stockpiled for emergency use, rendering thousands of them unusable. This is yet another example of the shocking ineptitude of our federal government during this pandemic.

Write to HHS, with a copy to Congress, telling them to address the ventilator shortage.

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Secretary Alex Azar

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Please address the ventilator shortage

Dear [Decision Maker],

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Years ago, the federal government began contracting with private companies to produce smaller, cheaper ventilators to have on hand in the event of a pandemic. The company that eventually developed the ventilator hasn't delivered a single one to the government and is instead selling the model at a huge markup overseas. The government also failed to maintain the ventilators they already had stockpiled for emergency use, rendering thousands of them unusable. This is unacceptable.

Five years ago, a division of Health and Human Services (HHS) contracted with multinational company Philips N.V. to create a low-cost, portable, and easy-to-use ventilator in order to better prepare the US to deal with a pandemic. The FDA approved Philips' design in 2019, and HHS ordered 10,000 of the ventilators for $3,280 each to be delivered by September 2022. The contract gave Philips a year before they had to produce a single ventilator for the government.

Then a global pandemic hit, and the ventilator designed with taxpayer money is selling like hot-cakes--just not to the US government. After getting FDA approval, Philips began selling commercial versions of the ventilator to overseas customers at a huge markup for $17,154. Meanwhile, the company apparently has "no plan" to begin production of the government-ordered ventilators anytime this year.

ProPublica reporting described HHS as "remarkably differential to Philips--and never more so than in the current pandemic." HHS officials have yet to explain why they haven't forced Philips to accelerate the fulfillment of the government contract when it became clear that medical facilities were getting overwhelmed and there was a shortage of ventilators. HHS is apparently happy to let Philips make a killing off of a taxpayer-funded ventilator while healthcare workers scramble and adjust to crippling shortages.

This isn't the only government fumble when it comes to ventilators. State officials have reported to HHS that ventilators they received from the agency didn't work. This was reportedly due to the fact that the government's stockpile was not properly maintained; the contract with a company that was maintaining the ventilators had expired in the summer of 2019, and another company wasn't given the job of maintaining the government stockpile until January 2020, when the US was already in the grips of the pandemic. This lapse likely rendered many of the machines inoperable, as experts say that these machines are sensitive and cannot be stored for prolonged periods without maintenance.

These actions are costing lives. Please address this critical shortage of ventilators and put pressure on Philips to deliver ventilators that taxpayers paid to develop!

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
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[Your Email]