Posted on 07/21/2006 8:08:25 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose a new plan Saturday requiring drug companies to give discounts to low-income residents within five years or face state sanctions, Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshe said Friday.
The plan is similar to Democratic proposals the governor has rejected in the past.
Under the new proposal, drug companies would have five years to offer discounts to people who earn less than three times the federal poverty level, or about $60,000 a year for a family of four.
Companies that do not cooperate could be cut out of the state's Medi-Cal program, which provides about $4 billion in drugs annually to poor and elderly people.
Belshe said the governor's plan, which would need approval from the Democratic-controlled state Legislature and the federal government, could reduce the cost of prescription drugs by 40 to 60 percent for participants.
Democrats said they were pleased the governor was proposing a plan that includes possible sanctions for noncompliant drug companies. But they called it an election-year change of heart designed to win votes.
Schwarzenegger has in the past said he would only support voluntary compliance for drug companies. He also vetoed a Democratic bill that would have linked a state Web site to Canadian pharmacies that sell cheaper drugs.
"This is a big flip-flop for the governor," said Assemblyman Dario Frommer, D-Los Angeles, who sponsored a similar bill that Schwarzenegger opposed. "He has always said he wanted a voluntary program."
Beth Capell, legislative advocate for the consumer advocacy group Health Access, said she had not yet seen the details of the governor's plan Friday but embraced the idea.
"If the governor has recognized the need for enforceable, verifiable discounts for Californians, that is a good first step," she said.
Under Schwarzenegger's plan, the state would not subsidize the discounts. Belshe said the governor's plan was not at odds with his previous position, because it still begins with the voluntary compliance he has always sought.
"Five years is ample opportunity for the drug companies to come forward," she said.
The governor's planned announcement Saturday comes two days before his health care affordability summit in Los Angeles.
Monday's event is intended to bring together disparate and often feuding factions in the health care debate, including labor leaders such as Andy Stern, the national president of the Service Employees International Union, and business leaders such as Safeway CEO Steve Burd.
The governor's proposal is similar to bills sponsored by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, which would extend the discounts to people living 3.5 times the federal poverty level.
Thirty-two other states currently operate state pharmacy discount programs, according to Nunez's office.
Although polls have shown many Californians support drug discount programs, voters rejected two competing measures in November's special election.
Pharmaceutical companies launched a multi-million-dollar attack against a measure that would have required them to give steep discounts to uninsured Californians in order to participate in the state's Medi-Cal program. The companies offered their own ballot initiative which made such a discount program voluntary.
So do these same companies have the right to verify that the people requesting this benefit are legal American citizens?
Ahhh the joys of being a Republican socialist.
Last summer, when the government was trying to find poor seniors to sign up for the Medicare drug plan, they reported that they were not having any luck. That is because there was no need for it. Poor people were already covered every which way imaginable. So here comes another charlatan beating a dead horse.
Which means everyone else will simply pay more.
How in hell can I vote for this guy?
3 times the federal poverty level????? SHEESH....no wonder so many illegals are trying to get here.
So the poor & elderly won't be getting their drugs...
Just vote absentee, it gives you more time to cuss and stuff before you punch the chad out.
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