Posted on 09/28/2005 6:29:22 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO - The influential senior citizen lobby AARP urged its 3.1 million California members and other voters Wednesday to oppose Proposition 78, which would create a voluntary prescription drug discount program for poor, uninsured state residents.
AARP opposes the drug industry-sponsored measure because it would make pharmaceutical industry participation voluntary, but supports an opposing measure that would make discounts mandatory if the companies wanted to fully participate in the state's Medicaid program.
"There is a danger if Proposition 78 passes that we will see little or no real benefit," said AARP state director Tom Porter. "Discounts will be provided only as it suits the drug manufacturers."
The campaign behind the proposition is led by the lobbyist Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America - or PhRMA - and is almost entirely bankrolled by more than $70 million in drug industry contributions. The California Chamber of Commerce previously endorsed Proposition 78.
Jan Faiks, PhRMA's vice president for government affairs, said AARP supported a California Senate bill earlier that was identical to Proposition 78. That bill failed.
"Proposition 78 was good policy for AARP three months ago," Faiks said. "What's happened behind the scenes in Sacramento for AARP to reverse its position? Clearly AARP is kowtowing to pressure."
Porter said the AARP supported the Senate bill because reining in high drug costs is the second biggest political issue for the group behind Social Security.
He said the bill was simply the beginning of the legislative process that allowed for amendments and negotiations. Further, he said a law passed by the Legislature would be easier to change than a proposition passed by the electorate.
PhRMA gathered enough voter signatures to qualify the proposition for the Nov. 8 ballot in response to a competing initiative that would tie companies' drug sales under the state's Medicaid program - called Medi-Cal - to a discount program for the uninsured. Medi-Cal serves the state's poor, elderly and disabled.
That initiative, Proposition 79, would punish companies that refuse to participate in the discount program by removing their products from a list of drugs approved for Medi-Cal reimbursement. Unapproved drugs could only be reimbursed after filing paperwork and getting permission from the state.
The AARP, endorsed Proposition 79, which is supported by labor unions and consumer groups that would make such a prescription drug discount program mandatory.
AARP said if Proposition 79 passes, the drug companies will likely challenge it in court, preventing it from immediately going into effect.
PhRMA sued Maine after it enacted a similar mandatory drug discount program. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed Maine to start the program, which it did last year, but left much of the state's law unsettled.
PhRMA's Faiks said Maine hasn't yet removed any drug from that state's Medicaid drug list. She said PhRMA would sue Maine if it attempted to do that.
The endorsement came after both sides argued their cases during a meeting at the AARP Sacramento office two weeks ago.
NO on 78!
NO on 79!
BOTH STINK.
Ditto that.
Amen!
You know what they say, there's no free lunch. If someone's meds are artificially discounted then someone else is going to pay. There aren't enough wealthy people so it always ends up being the folks in the middle who get screwed. The only question is, under price controls, how long would it take for the new system to self destruct? It would be cheaper and less painful to send the board at AARP to a seminar on market economics.
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