Medically Tailored Meals Save Lives and Lower Healthcare Costs

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, food is medicine, and medically tailored meals provide people living with chronic illness essential nutrition to improve their health and keep them out of the hospital.

Incredible providers like Community Servings in my home State of Massachusetts, God's Love We Deliver in New York City, and dozens of agencies across the country have proven these meals work.

Among individuals with complex health conditions, MTMs have led to a 70 percent drop in emergency room visits and cut hospital admissions in half. If all eligible patients received MTMs, studies show that we could save over $32 billion in the first year alone.

Today, I am reintroducing bipartisan, bicameral legislation with Representatives Malliotakis, Pingree, Fitzpatrick, and Evans and Senators Booker, Marshall, Smith, and Cassidy to pilot the coverage of MTMs in traditional Medicare. Our bill, which expands access to these lifesaving meals, will lead to billions of dollars in savings without adding one dime to the deficit.

I urge my colleagues to join the growing bipartisan Food is Medicine movement and pass our medically tailored meals bill. Let's work together to end hunger now.

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