The National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) recently convened a critical discussion on the federal government’s proposed Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing model. Moderated by Gary A. Puckrein, PhD, NMQF’s President and CEO, the webinar broke down how MFN’s international price-matching approach could reshape access to medicines in the United States—particularly for communities already facing systemic barriers to care. Dr. Puckrein emphasized that tying U.S. prices to countries with smaller economies and restrictive health systems risks stalling medical innovation and limiting access to life-changing therapies.

Panelist Sara van Geertruyden, Executive Director of the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC), warned that MFN could import discriminatory value frameworks such as the Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY), a metric long rejected in the U.S. because it devalues people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Dr. Elena Rios, President of the National Hispanic Health Foundation, highlighted how MFN would disproportionately harm Latino and other underserved communities already struggling with limited insurance coverage, language barriers, and high burdens of chronic disease. She cautioned that restricting access to cutting-edge treatments would worsen long-standing health inequities.

Adding a deeply personal perspective, CiCi Rojas, Vice Chair of The Latino Coalition and a cancer survivor, described how access to innovative treatment—made possible through a clinical trial—saved her life. She stressed that policies like MFN could jeopardize future patients’ ability to benefit from similar breakthroughs, while also hindering economic growth tied to medical innovation. Together, the speakers underscored that the path forward requires strengthening affordability, reforming utilization management, and expanding culturally competent care—not adopting blunt price-control tools that limit access and slow scientific progress.

Want to understand what MFN could mean for your health, your family, and your community? Watch the full webinar to hear the experts break it down in their own words.