Jon is working to increase access to quality and affordable health care in urban, rural, and Tribal communities across Montana and he is a leading advocate in Congress to lower the costs of prescription drugs.
Jon successfully led the push to close a loophole that will lower out-of-pocket costs for consumers and save Medicare beneficiaries an estimated $21.3 billion over the next ten years by preventing corporate middlemen from retroactively charging rural pharmacies excessive fees for prescription drugs.
As a third generation Montanan who grew up in a frontier community, Jon knows that access to health care in rural America can be the difference between life and death. That’s why he wants to make sure that regardless of whether folks get hurt in the oil fields of the Bakken, skiing near Yellowstone, or farming in Fort Benton, they have affordable health care options nearby.
Jon fought tooth and nail for more than $68 million for 322 Montana health care providers in the American Rescue Plan Act, to help rural providers across the Treasure State keep the lights on and provide critical care to families and communities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jon has led the charge to permanently expand telehealth services for rural communities and veterans, and he also successfully led the push to create and fund 1,000 medical residency slots that will bring young doctors to train and work in rural communities.
Protecting Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for working families is critical to Montana’s future. Folks have paid into Medicare their whole lives, and they shouldn’t have the rug pulled out from under them by Washington politicians. That’s why Jon will protect Medicare from being privatized or turned into a voucher system.