16 Jan |
11:16 AM
By January 2026, over 287 drugs are still in short supply across the U.S., with nearly half of them being life-saving medications like insulin, chemotherapy agents, and antibiotics. Hospitals are rationing doses. Pharmacies are telling patients to wait weeks. And doctors are forced to prescribe less effective alternatives-sometimes with dangerous side effects. Despite this crisis, the federal government has been mostly silent. Until now.
Two Bills, One Goal: Stopping Shortages Before They Start
In August 2025, Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced the Drug Shortage Prevention Act of 2025 (S.2665). It’s not a flashy name, but it’s one of the most direct attempts to fix drug shortages in years. The bill doesn’t promise new funding or create new agencies. Instead, it requires drug manufacturers to notify the FDA the moment they see a spike in demand for critical medicines. Think of it like a smoke alarm for the medicine supply chain. Right now, manufacturers aren’t legally required to report when they’re running low-or when they expect to run low. That means the FDA often finds out about a shortage after hospitals are already out of stock. S.2665 changes that. If passed, companies would have to flag rising demand, production delays, or raw material shortages within 10 days. The goal? Give the FDA time to step in-find alternate suppliers, fast-track approvals, or warn providers before patients are left without treatment. Meanwhile, in the House, Representative [unnamed] introduced H.R.1160, the Health Care Provider Shortage Minimization Act of 2025. While details are scarce, the title alone tells you what it’s aiming for: fixing the shortage of doctors, nurses, and other frontline workers. The U.S. is projected to fall short by 124,000 physicians by 2034. Right now, 122 million Americans live in areas with too few primary care providers. Rural clinics shut down. Emergency rooms stretch staff to the breaking point. H.R.1160 is supposed to address this, but without a public summary, no one knows if it offers loan forgiveness, expands training programs, or creates new visa pathways for foreign-trained clinicians.Why These Bills Are Stuck
Here’s the harsh truth: neither bill has moved past committee. And that’s not because lawmakers don’t care-it’s because the federal government has been shut down since October 1, 2025. The longest shutdown in U.S. history. Over 800,000 federal workers are furloughed. The FDA, the very agency S.2665 depends on to monitor and respond to shortages, has no staff to process notifications. Their Drug Shortage Portal is down. Their email system is offline. Their ability to track anything? Gone. The shutdown isn’t just a delay-it’s a full stop. No hearings. No votes. No amendments. Even the continuing resolution passed by Senate Republicans in November 2025, which extends funding through January 30, 2026, doesn’t mention drug shortages or healthcare staffing. It’s focused on cutting foreign aid and media budgets. Not on saving lives. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that implementing S.2665 would cost $45 million a year. That’s less than 0.003% of the $1.74 trillion deficit from last year. But in today’s political climate, even small costs are seen as too high. The Rescissions Act of 2025 slashed $9 billion from State Department and USAID funding-yet nothing for the FDA to prevent people from dying because their cancer drug is out of stock.
Who’s Feeling the Pain?
You don’t need to read bills to understand the impact. Ask a hospital pharmacist. Or a cancer patient. Or a parent whose child needs an antibiotic that’s been unavailable for six months. A September 2025 survey by the American Medical Association found that 87% of physicians have seen patients suffer because of drug shortages. The American Hospital Association reported that 98% of hospitals faced at least one critical drug shortage in the third quarter of 2025. Generic drugs-cheaper, widely used medications-account for 63% of these shortages, according to the Association for Accessible Medicines. That’s not a glitch. It’s a broken system. Manufacturers can’t make enough because they’re not paid enough. And without profit, they stop producing. The provider shortage is just as bad. Rural clinics have closed. Nurses are working 12-hour shifts six days a week. Emergency rooms turn away patients because there’s no one to staff them. And H.R.1160? No one knows what it actually says. Only 12% of doctors even knew it existed.
10 Comments
Meanwhile, my cousin's kid is on chemo and they're giving her a drug that makes her vomit for 48 hours straight because the real one is 'out of stock.'
Call it a shortage. I call it murder by bureaucracy.
It's wild how connected we are. I'm hopeful S.2665 could help if it ever gets out of committee. Maybe if we all keep shouting, someone in DC will finally listen. Not a fix, but a step.
no one's talking about how the FDA can't even respond to the notifications if the bill passes because their servers are offline
it's like passing a fire alarm law while the fire department is on strike
It's not just about drugs. It's about nurses crying because they can't give a kid their antibiotic. It's about people choosing between rent and their meds.
Don't wait for Congress to wake up. Do it now. Text. Call. DM. We're running out of time.
Notification without enforcement is theater. It's like requiring your car to have a seatbelt alarm but letting people ignore it. The FDA needs subpoena power, not a suggestion box.
And H.R.1160? Still a mystery. Probably a 3-page PDF titled 'We Tried.'
That's the system. And no one's coming to fix it.
These bills are a start. But they're not enough. We need to pay people to work in rural clinics. We need to pay nurses more than CEOs. We need to stop treating healthcare like a stock market.
And we need to stop pretending this is about politics. It's about people.
Also USA: 'Let's shut down the FDA.'
Also USA: 'Why is everyone so unhealthy?'
Plot twist: You're the problem.
They call this capitalism. I call it a death sentence with a receipt.