Tariffs on medical items should be reinvested in the health care supply chain

For supply chains, natural and manmade disruptive events act like a domino effect, impacting an organization’s operations, bottom line, and the delivery of products and services our economy depends on. Remember toilet paper in March 2020?

For the health care sector, the consequences of this disruption are far more dire than having to check a few stores for toilet paper. Tariffs, supply shortages, global logistics delays, natural disasters, and political unrest can have an overwhelming impact on patient care and the availability of medical products that providers rely on every day. For instance, September 2024’s Hurricane Helene damaged critical IV fluids manufacturing infrastructure in North Carolina, which led to shortages for more than 86% of U.S. health care providers nationwide. In the summer of 2022, shortages of made-in-China contrast media, critical for diagnostic imaging, compromised care for up to 10% of U.S. patients in key clinical categories. These are two significant and recent examples of critical health care product shortages, but issues have persisted for decades.

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