Now that a discount prescription drug plan pushed by organized labor and big drugmakers has failed at the state legislature, we urge lawmakers to finish their work on Senate Bill 1 and send it to the governor.
The measure, by Sen. Bob Hagedorn and House Majority Leader Alice Madden, is a good bill designed to provide discounts to Colorado’s uninsured and Medicaid recipients and save the state money in the process. The cost to state taxpayers of administering the program is a modest $70,000 in the first fiscal year but by the following year would save the state more than $1 million.
The discount-drug proposal killed in the House on Tuesday would have cost the state $180,000 the first year and $641,000 the next. The proposed discounts were uncertain and also would have burdened pharmacists. Costco discount stores offer lower priced drugs than HB 1100 would have done, Hagedorn noted, citing a cost-comparison study.
SB 1 would require Colorado to team up with other states to negotiate lower prices. When they pool their purchasing power, states are in a position to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical makers, who – not surprisingly – oppose the measure. States without access to a drug-buying pool, Madden believes, are the last “deep pocket” for drug manufacturers.
The bill also establishes the Colorado Cares Rx Program, which offers discounted prescription drug coverage to legal Colorado residents who are uninsured. A similar program in Maine has delivered average discounts of 51 percent for generic drugs and 24 percent for brand names.
With the cost of health care soaring and more than 760,000 Coloradans uninsured, SB 1 is an effort to provide some relief to Colorado consumers, and we urge Gov. Bill Owens to sign it. The dozen states in drug-purchasing pools report millions of dollars in savings.
The National Governors’ Association supports the pools, as does the National Federation of Independent businesses and AARP. Some Republicans who opposed it last year support it this year.
The plan comes with a preferred drug list, opposed by some patient groups that worry needed drugs won’t be on the list. Unlike a bill vetoed by Owens last year, this year’s bill gives the Department of Health Care Financing and the governor the authority to decide which drugs go on the list.
Owens for years has talked about wanting to cut Medicaid costs.
This is his last best chance before leaving office to save the state money and help uninsured citizens of Colorado – some who need life-saving medicines but can’t afford them – by signing the bill.
