LETTER: Congress Agrees on Legislation, Inspiring Hope for Future

The following letter to the editor was submitted by Harleysville resident Matt Helfrich. To submit a letter to the editor at Patch, please email justin.heinze@patch.com.

The 114th Congress has received harsh criticism for its inability to work together and pass meaningful legislation. Although many people feel that the 114th Congress deserves failing grades, their passage of the 21st Century Cures Act (HR 6) during the last weeks of this session was an important achievement and their proverbial "swan song." This bill passed easily in both the House and the Senate because of bipartisan support and cooperation for nearly 2 years. Their successful collaboration on this bill sustains my faith that members of Congress can still work across party lines to pass important legislation.

Passage of the 21st Century Cures Act was a challenging effort itself. There are certain provisions within the bill that people are concerned with, while others feel the bill provides hope and opportunity to treat dangerous diseases more effectively. While I understand the issues and concerns raised about the bill, I believe the 21st Century Cures Act will have a significant impact on US Health Care for the next 20 years.The provisions of the bill will put our country, its doctors, and its various administrative apparatuses in a better position to treat the sick, including cancer patients, using new, effective treatments that will be tested and approved in a shorter timeframe than most expect.

In fact, the bill should have a positive impact on a wide array of health care issues we currently face today. The bill allots $6.3 billion dollars towards healthcare, which includes the strengthening of mental healthcare, speeding up drug approvals to make innovative treatments more accessible, funding cancer research and brain science research, and combatting opioid and prescription drug abuse.

Another important provision of the bill is that it provides $4.8 billion to the National Institute of Health (NIH) to support the Cancer Moonshot Initiative headed by Vice President Joe Biden. For those of us who have lost loved ones to cancer or are currently fighting cancer themselves, the funding for the Moonshot Initiative provides hope and promise that the War on Cancer can be won.

However, the most significant part of the 21st Century Cures Act is the speeding up of development and approval for new medical devices and treatments by the FDA. The FDA will be able to use real-world, or “patient-experience” evidence when it comes to approving already established medications for the treatment of new or existing conditions. There will also be new measures of establishing efficacy of many treatments that will be quicker and bypass many long-term benchmarks of traditional clinical trials in favor of bringing a promising medication to research completion sooner. This would allow new drugs and treatments to reach the patients much earlier than under the current process, and in doing so would provide the opportunity to save thousands of lives.

Opponents of the bill feel that the 114th Congress was heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical lobby when drafting the 21st Century Cures Act. These opponents argue that the bill would lower the regulatory bar and may lead to less safe and less efficient medications on the market. While these are valid concerns, it's important to recognize that scientists across the country are finding possible cures or treatments for dangerous diseases on an almost daily process. However, the current review and approval process for new treatments and drugs is simply taking too long and therefore cannot keep pace with the growing number of people stricken with serious diseases like cancer.

While no piece of legislation is perfect, the 21st Century Cures Act has the potential, if properly administered, to create a more efficient and streamlined health care system so that the advances made in science can translate into treatments for seriously ill Americans. The bill brings hope to millions of Americans and their families who are currently battling life-threatening disease. That's good enough for me.

-Matt Helfrich

Harleysville, PA

Patch file photo.