California bill would require Rx to buy cold remedies containing pseudoephedrine

Auggie

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Wed Jun-03-09 02:59 PM
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California bill would require Rx to buy cold remedies containing pseudoephedrine

KGO Radio 810 - San Francisco (6-3-09)

A crime-fighting bill moving through the California Legislature would force patients to get a doctor's prescription to buy a common remedy for stuffy noses.

The measure by Sen. Rod Wright, an Inglewood Democrat, would make it an infraction or misdemeanor to obtain ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or related drugs without a prescription.
Those are common ingredients in cold medicines, but they're also used to make illegal methamphetamine. Wright says he wants to get them out of drug dealers' hands.

But Sen. Sam Aanestad, an oral surgeon and Republican from Grass Valley, says prescriptions would boost the cost of a $4 bottle of nose spray to $40 or $50. He would rather limit the amount of medication one person can buy. A 22-10 vote Tuesday sent the bill to the Assembly.

LINK: http://www.kgoradio.com/Article.asp?id=1353450&spid=15884

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From Consumer Healthcare Products Association (www.chpa-info.org)

"The consequences of the bill�s passage, however, would be devastating for Californians. Requiring consumers to obtain a prescription to purchase pseudoephedrine products would impose substantial, and unnecessary, new costs on consumers and the healthcare system without making any impact on the availability or abuse of methamphetamines.

Legitimate consumers are the ones who will be forced to:

� Take time off to see a doctor to obtain a prescription when they need a cold or allergy medicine containing pseudoephedrine, even though these products are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for nonprescription use;
� Pay a co-pay for their doctor visit or pay out-of-pocket;
� Find a pharmacy, during pharmacy hours, and wait for their prescription to be filled; and
� Pay prescription-drug prices or their co-pay for a nonprescription drug.

Requiring a prescription for an OTC drug will impose direct costs on the state:

� To reimburse physicians every time a Medicaid or SCHIP recipient sees a doctor to obtain a PSE prescription;
� In increased health insurance premiums for state employees;
� In over $4,460,000 in lost sales tax revenue (based on 2008 sales data, not including Wal Mart) because prescription drugs are tax-exempt while OTCs are subject to sales tax; and
� In added expenses on public hospitals that will be forced to treat the uninsured who can no longer buy these products without a prescription and lack timely-if any-access to a doctor.

LINK: http://chpa-info.org/governmentaffairs/PreserveOTCAccess.aspx

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The California Peace Officers Association claims to have worked hard to get this bill introduced (http://www.cpoa.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=78).
While their intentions are understandable, this will create a real hardship for Californians.

This is a rare instance when I agree with a *choke* Republican.