LANSING - 8th District Congressional Representative Elissa Slotkin held an intimate Town Hall in Lansing right before the start of summer. During this Town Hall meeting, Congresswoman Slotkin gave residents the opportunity to ask questions and voice their comments/concerns. Slotkin stated that she is committed to doing a Town Hall every 3 months because, "I just simply don’t understand how you do this job as congresswoman, or congressman, without engaging with the public. I would not know what you all wanted me to work on if you did not tell me, and if you can’t get to me you can’t tell me.”

Congresswoman Slotkin also gave an account of one of the main priorities that she is actively working on: radical listening. “One of the things that we said we were gonna do, and we have now done, is set up a series of district advisory boards. These are boards on healthcare, on senior citizens, on veteran’s issues where we bring people from the district who have a level of expertise either they’re doctors, they’re nurses, they’re survivors of brain cancer, they’re diabetic...and they want to talk about how policy impacts their lives and effect the legislation that I draft, and what bills I vote on.”

When asked what was the main concern across the district, Congresswoman Slotkin told HOMTV that “pretty much everywhere I go in the district, people’s number one issue is the price of prescription drugs and how they’ve sky rocketed and how they can’t afford them.” Slotkin believes that transparency on drugs can be the 1st step in resolving this rising issue. “When a doctor prescribes a drug to you, they should have access in their online system to tell you if there is another drug available that is cheaper, the same drug. It’s never gonna make the front page but it will create change when you go to the doctors office and get a new prescription for that drug.”

With transparency comes pricing structure, how prices might change and whether there is a generic or cheaper equivalent available. Slotkin is currently working on a bill that requires a doctor to advise patients of cheaper drugs covered by your plan.