A major Democratic proposal to help lower the price that uninsured Coloradans pay for prescription drugs passed a Senate committee Wednesday, but it is a likely candidate for Republican Gov. Bill Owens’ veto pen.
Meanwhile, a separate, bipartisan plan to provide cheaper drugs that was announced with great fanfare last week has not been filed.
The Democrats’ proposal, Senate Bill 1, would require the state to enter a multi-state prescription drug purchasing pool for its Medicaid patients. The state would get a better price on drugs because they would be bought in bulk.
The proposal would also allow Coloradans without prescription drug coverage to buy drugs at a discounted rate.
As introduced, the proposal would have been sent to the voters in November if passed by the legislature. By sending it to the ballot, Democrats would have bypassed Owens and his potential veto.
But Democratic Sen. Bob Hagedorn of Aurora, the bill’s sponsor, said he asked the Senate health panel to remove that provision because November’s ballot probably will be crowded and it would have taken more money to pass the measure.
“We don’t have the money to run a referred (measure),” said Kelli Fritts, a lobbyist for AARP, a main supporter of the bill.
To join a multi-state drug purchasing pool, Colorado would have to implement a preferred drug list, which includes drugs for use based on performance and cost.
If a cheaper drug worked as well as its more expensive counterpart, it probably would join a preferred-drug list, called a PDL.
Owens opposes PDLs and vetoed a bill similar to Senate Bill 1 last year. Senate Bill 1 would require the governor’s administration to create the list.
“This is entirely in the hands of the administration, determining the PDL,” Hagedorn said.
But Owens’ spokesman, Dan Hopkins, said the proposal is unlikely to fly.
“We’ll take a look at the bill when it comes down in its final form,” he said. “But the fact is that you’ll still have a PDL, which was one of the governor’s big concerns last year.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter told a group attending a health care discussion that Colorado “should be a part of a pool that takes down our cost.”
A PDL, he said after his presentation, “should not be any impediment from doing it.”
The opponents of Senate Bill 1 focused much of their testimony on the problems caused by a preferred-drug list.
“You’re going to cause a lot of misery by telling people what drugs they should be taking for their disease,” said Sheila Hicks of Colorado Springs, who takes 19 different medications daily for a variety of conditions including diabetes, polycystic kidney disease and pulmonary hypertension.
“The person best able to decide what drugs work for you is your physician, and I don’t think the legislature should be telling a physician how to practice medicine,” Hicks said.
But Hagedorn said there would be a process to approve drugs that were not on the list. People in 35 other states are not suffering because of such lists, he said.
Meanwhile, the details of a proposed compromise to House Bill 1252 still have not been released more than a week after they were touted by Democratic leaders and Republicans.
The proposal is similar to a provision of Senate Bill 1 that would give uninsured Coloradans access to discounted drugs.
The proposed compromise would create a program to provide discounts on prescription drugs for uninsured Coloradans earning less than 250 percent of federal poverty levels – $50,000 for a family of four – and for those 60 and older.
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at cfrates@denverpost.com or 303-820-1633.
