“President Trump is taking our country back,” an ad hitting Utah airwaves declares, “But an out-of-control government program, 340B, is secretly sabotaging his agenda.”
The ad, paid for by Building America’s Future, a self-described “pro-MAGA conservative nonprofit organization,” is taking aim at a bill meant to protect access to a 33-year-old government program requiring drug manufacturers to sell medications at a reduced rate to hospitals and clinics that serve disadvantaged communities.
The bill from Republican Sen. Evan Vickers, who runs a pharmacy in Richfield, is still in progress, according to his intern. As “Medication Amendments,” or SB69, is drafted, it would bar efforts to interfere with acquisition of discounted drugs under that program, commonly known as 340B.
Building America’s Future did not respond to an email asking whether a specific donor funded the ad. An email from the organization links to a video version of the ad on YouTube, and includes Vickers’ bill in a bullet-point list of policies being weighed by state legislatures.
The organization is widely described as a “dark money” group — one that uses its funds for political purposes, but obscures where donations come from. As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, rather than a political action committee, it does not have to file finance reports as frequently and must adhere to less stringent disclosure requirements.
It’s unclear where the group’s funding is from, but in October, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk — the world’s richest man who now heads the Trump-established “Department of Government Efficiency” — has steered tens of millions of dollars through Building America’s Future toward right-wing causes.
Vickers, through his intern, declined a request for an interview on his bill and the claims made in the ad.
Created under the first Bush administration, 340B — named for its section in the codified Public Health Service Act — was intended to bolster health care providers’ ability to care for low-income and uninsured patients. But an email announcing the television and podcast ads characterizes it as “being used to subsidize healthcare for illegal immigrants and pay for gender transition for kids.”
According to the announcement, Building America’s Future spent five figures on the ads, which are running in four states with “legislation to expand the federal 340B program” — Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota and Utah. The campaign, it says, is “urging state Republicans to support President Trump’s agenda.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, speaks during a news conference at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024.
A Republican and former majority leader in the Utah House of Representatives, Francis Gibson, now leads the Utah Hospital Association. His organization supports the bill, and he disagrees with how the ads portray the 340B program.
Opposition to it, Gibson contends, primarily comes from pharmaceutical companies whose profits have taken a hit under the program. “These aren’t taxpayer dollars,” Gibson said.
“I think you’ll hear that this is to support illegal immigrants or this is to support whomever it is that is politically pleasing at the time,” Gibson added. “In reality, those savings are passed on to help provide care. If [a hospital or clinic does] not see a certain amount of the uninsured, or if you don’t see a big portion of Medicaid patients, the poorest of the poor, then you don’t qualify for 340B.”
The bill has the backing of other members of the state’s medical community, too. Michelle McOmber, the head of the Utah Medical Association representing physicians in the state, said, “We do think it helps patients, which is the basis of why we support it.”
Over a dozen Utah hospitals participate in the 340B program. While some of the state’s largest hospitals use the program, many of the hospitals and clinics enrolled serve Utah’s most rural communities.
Other critiques of 340B include assertions that hospitals’ cost savings are not transferred to patients, but research meant to back up those claims has largely been funded by pharmaceutical companies.
Vickers’ bill currently sits in the Senate Rules Committee and has not yet been distributed for further consideration.
