National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) President and CEO Steven C. Anderson issued the following statement today following the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services:

“NACDS congratulates our next Secretary of Health and Human Services: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The focus now is on improving Americans’ health. Pharmacies in communities across the nation will help.

“NACDS looks forward to engaging proactively to address the chronic disease crisis. Americans see pharmacies and pharmacists as the most accessible healthcare destinations, and among the most highly trusted. There is a pharmacy within five miles of 90 percent of Americans, and they can help mightily to fix a system that still focuses on ‘sick-care’ more than on ‘health-care.’

“It is essential to this Administration’s success and to America’s success to quickly deliver long-overdue reforms of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) tactics that inflate people’s drug costs, that bar access to people’s pharmacy of choice, and that force pharmacies out of business. NACDS appreciates now-Secretary Kennedy’s recognition during the confirmation process that PBM reform is one of the top bipartisan issues in the Congress, and his pledges about legislative approaches to PBM reform, and that ‘President Trump is absolutely committed to fixing the PBMs.’

“In January, NACDS released our recommendations to the Trump Administration: ‘Four Wins to Make America Healthy Again.’ In addition to PBM reform and to the management and prevention of chronic-disease, NACDS urges the Administration to stop the system from cheating seniors out of access to pharmacy care services, and to remove unnecessary regulatory burdens standing between consumers and pharmacy care. We look forward to working with Secretary Kennedy on each of these recommendations which are key to really improving health, and to preventing healthcare from becoming more remote and out-of-reach for Americans.”