Michael Hiltzick on Prop 78 & 79

[realFedUp]

http://goldenstateblog.latimes.com/goldenstate/2005/11/the_golden_stat_1.html

The Golden State Voter's Guide, Part Two. Props 78 and 79: This is Your Mind on Drugs
Right-thinking votes: NO and NO.

One of the scourges of initiative campaigns is dueling ballot measures like these, where one is always designed to confuse voters who may be favoring the other.

If there’s a topic that should rightfully belong to the state legislature, prescription drug pricing is it; the matter is extremely complex, implicating the economics of health care, the state budget, and the behavior of the second-most profitable industry in creation. To expect voters to wade their way through these initiatives is simply too much. They both need to go down.

Proposition 78, cooked up by the pharmaceutical industry, is a voluntary discount program. Voluntary for whom? The drug companies, of course. If they don’t belly up with lower prices for the poor, they’ll be slapped with….nothing. There’s no incentive, and no "hammer" to make them volunteer. States with similar programs are still waiting for the companies to offer substantial comprehensive discounts. They’ll probably be waiting forever.

Prop 79 was drafted by labor unions and consumer advocates. It would cover perhaps twice as many patients as 78, largely by raising the income qualification. It mandates a given level of discounts. Any company that doesn’t comply could have its products knocked off the preferred list at Medi-Cal, which could cost them plenty. (that’s the "hammer.") Doctors wishing to prescribe those drugs to their Medi-Cal patients would have to get prior authorization, which might or might not complicate matters.

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