Squeezed by staffing shortages, declining reimbursement rates, and industry consolidation, community pharmacies across the nation are being shuttered at an alarming rate, sending patients scrambling to fill prescriptions while pharmacists experience dangerous burnout. In 2019 there were 21,683 community pharmacies operating primarily in smaller markets across the United States, according to the National Community Pharmacists Association. By June 2021, approximately 2,300 had closed. In Oregon the challenges to community pharmacies have been compounded by a Corporate Activity Tax (CAT) enacted at the beginning of 2020. Oregon has lost nearly 80 pharmacies in the past two years, according to the Oregon State Pharmacy Association. Roughly 60 percent of the counties in the state have less than two pharmacies per 10,000 residents. Two counties don’t have any pharmacies at all. “We’re hemorrhaging community pharmacies and it’s hurting rural residents,” Oregon Congresswoman Anna Scharf, a Republican, told The Epoch Times. “The CAT makes …