The Patients & Providers for Medical Nutrition Equity (PPMNE) coalition, a collaborative effort in which APFED participates and supports, is gearing up to reintroduce the Medical Nutrition Equity Act in 2019. The proposed legislation would provide public and private insurance coverage for medically necessary foods (including vitamins) for digestive and inherited metabolic disorders. An example of a medically-necessary food is elemental formula that is often prescribed to patients as dietary therapy for treatment eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases, or to meet nutritional needs as the result of a restricted diet.

We need your support to show members of Congress that passage of this bill is important to the patients who rely on medically-necessary foods. Please take a moment to get involved in the following ways:

Reach out to your legislators! The PPMNE website offers a list of current co-sponsors from the House and Senate, and provides look-up tool to help you identify your legislators. If you are represented by a legislator who is not currently co-sponsoring, you may send an email directly from the site using sample language that is provided to encourage co-sponsorship, or by customizing your own communication: https://medicalnutritionequityfor.us/join-us/

Share your story and highlight why insurance coverage of medical foods is important to you and your loved ones: https://medicalnutritionequityfor.us/share-your-story/. These stories are shared with the legislators we meet with in D.C. as we advocate and they have impact!

Thanks in advance for supporting these efforts, and for helping patients to access medically-necessary foods!