NC Vietnam veteran says receiving medicines on time “is life or death”

As President Trump and Republican delegates arrive today in Charlotte for the Republican National Convention, they’ll be greeted by a roving billboard criticizing Trump for failing to help seniors access their prescription medicines.

The billboard, paid for by Lower Drug Prices Now, reads, “President Trump hasn’t lowered seniors’ drug prices. Now, he’s interfering with the postal service we depend on to get medicines safely at home.” The billboard will be traveling around downtown Charlotte on Monday.

“President Trump’s interference with postal service delivery is putting our veterans and seniors at risk for COVID and other health problems if they don’t get their medicines on time,” said Margarida Jorge, national campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now. “It’s bad enough that seniors are paying an arm and a leg for the medicines they rely on, and now those very medicines may not even show up. President Trump’s failure to lower drug prices, and now mess with the mail system, has failed our country’s seniors and veterans.”

“I have two medicines that if I don’t take each day, twice a day, I would be in the hospital,” said Reverend Melvin Whitley, a Vietnam veteran from Durham, NC who has received his medicines for his heart condition, high blood pressure and PTSD through the mail for more than four decades. “I’ve had heart surgery, so these medicines are important to me staying out of the hospital. It’s life or death.”

Seniors and disabled veterans across the country have been facing delayed mail, which can mean a delay receiving the medicines they rely on. A survey last week found that about 1-in-5 Americans received their medication by mail last week, and a quarter of them experienced a delay or non-delivery.

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