Lawmaker mulls price controls on prescription drugs

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief

State lawmakers will push proposals next year to curb the rising cost of prescription drugs, and Senate Consumer Protection Chairman Ron Menor said he is even willing to consider state-mandated price controls.

Menor said he will introduce a bill next year to deal with the problem because rising drug prices are hurting senior citizens, businesses and the state's taxpayers.

The state House this year passed a bill to create a purchasing pool to negotiate prescription drug discounts for people who have no drug coverage, but the measure died in the Senate after Menor said the issue needed further study.

Yesterday, Menor, D-18th (Waipi'o Gentry, Wahiawa), held the first of a series of Senate hearings on high prescription drug prices, signaling that at least some in the Senate now want to move on the issue.

John Rother, the AARP's director of public policy and legislation, told Menor's committee that one-third of all people 65 or older have no drug coverage and that the cost of drugs has been rising by almost 10 percent a year for the last decade.

Rother said some of the most heartbreaking stories AARP hears from its members are tales of senior citizens who pay 30 percent to 50 percent of their fixed incomes on prescription drugs.

Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono told the committee she also plans to press for a "pharmacy assistance program" beginning next year, noting that 25 percent of Hawai'i's population does not have drug coverage.

Representatives of the pharmaceutical industry did not testify at the hearing, but they have opposed price controls in the past.

Short of simply mandating lower drug prices, Menor said lawmakers may set up purchasing pools to try to negotiate discounts for consumers, or may create new tax credits for people who buy prescription drugs.

In the state House, Rep. Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Waipahu), said he is confident the House will again approve a purchasing pool, and this year will also approve limited price controls if the purchasing pool is unable to negotiate acceptable discounts.

President Bush and members of Congress have also floated proposals, but Menor said the state can't wait for the federal government.

"It's not clear that the federal government is poised at this point to take the kind of necessary and decisive action that's necessary to address this very significant and serious problem," he said.

Reach Kevin Dayton at 525-8070 or kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com