Reducing drug costs for Coloradans
Re: “Make sure drug law benefits consumers,” April 10 editorial.
The proposed Colorado Cares Rx program, which is being championed by state Rep. Jerry Frangas and supported by Colorado’s AFL-CIO, the Heinz Family Philanthropies and America’s pharmaceutical research companies, could significantly reduce the cost of prescription drug coverage for more than 500,000 Coloradans.
This discount card program is modeled on a successful program already working to save patients an average of about 32 percent on their medicines in Ohio. The idea is a good one and it’s growing. Rhode Island is also pursuing adopting the innovative program.
Your editorial pointed out that participants would pay a $3.50 fee per prescription. According to the proposed legislation, that fee includes a $1 administrative fee to defray the cost of the program to taxpayers as well as a $2.50 fee for pharmacists, which goes toward covering dispensing cost.
The cost this fiscal year to administer and run the Ohio program, according to public sources, is about $237,000. While it is true the Ohio state legislature did appropriate $10 million to run the program, that amount was not, nor will it likely ever be, spent according to projections. Instead, the administrative fee is reinvested into the program and will make it, in effect, self-sustaining as the program grows.
Steve Adams, President, Colorado AFL-CIO
Kurt Malmgren, Senior Vice President, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
Democracy for Nepal
Re: “Nepal protests build steam;
Demonstrator is killed; king vows
harsher response,” April 10 news
story.
I am a Nepali citizen living in the
U.S. for the last six years.The Denver
Post has been quite generous to
cover Nepal and the ongoing democratic
movement in the Himalayan
country. About 5,000 Nepali people
are living in Colorado, and
most of us support a regime change
by the Nepali people, for the Nepali
people and of the Nepali people.
This is the begining of the Nepali
new year and I wish and pray for
peaceful democratic change in Nepal.
I thank the U.S. government and
people for their support for democratic
change in Nepal. I especially
thank Dr. Brian Cab, a U.S. citizen,
who helped and treated a lot of people
during last week’s pro-democracy
movement but was deported by
the government because he treated
demonstrators. We Nepali people
see him as a great humanitarian.
Thank you, Dr. Cab, and sorry for
the misbehavior of a brutal regime.
Rajendra Sharma, Denver
Getting real on the immigration issue
Sen. Ken Salazar is being criticized for his comment on immigration,
to “get real.” Let’s remember that we send our representatives to Congress
to come up with practical solutions. This is what I think “get real”
means:
1. This country does not have the money, the law-enforcement manpower,
or the political will to deport 12 million illegal immigrants back to
Mexico or wherever. This is unrealistic, especially when there is no barrier,
either physical or political, to their just coming back in. The U.S.
most certainly does not want to imprison them as felons, given our already
expensively swollen prison population.
2. There is one industry in this country that can make an honest pitch
for the need for unskilled foreign labor agriculture. Too many farms
are already going out of business to risk savaging this essential part of
our economy.
3.Aphysical wall of 700 miles is another expensive proposition, of limited
benefit. While we can and must better patrol our borders, 700 miles
underground and above, 24/7, is a tall order.
We must have enforceable laws to crack down on illegal employers.
Wemust curb the demand for cheap labor with stiff fines and other penalties.
Most of all, we must not cripple our pocketbooks just to vent our
frustration with a situation that, I agree, should not have developed. But
it did. And that’s real.
S.P. Williams, Lakewood
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