President Obama took unilateral action Monday to help stem the
nation’s shortage of lifesaving drugs, a level of personal involvement
in health policy not seen since passage of the healthcare law almost 20
months ago.
Tied to the slogan “We can’t wait,” Obama
has been rolling out a series of executive orders to show he’s doing
everything he can to help the economy despite the impasse in Congress
over his jobs bill.
"Over the last five years the number of these drugs shortages has tripled and although the FDA has successfully prevented an actual crisis this is one of these slow rolling problems that could end up resulting in disaster for patients and healthcare facilities all across the country," said Obama at the executive order signing Monday.
"Congress has been trying since February to do something about this. It has not yet been able to get it done and it is the belief of this administration ... that we can't wait for action on the Hill we've got to go ahead and move forward," he added.
For more on Obama's response to the drug shortage and reaction to his signing of the executive order on The Hill's Healthwatch blog, click here.
