Posted on: Monday, February 4, 2002
ISLAND VOICES
Medicine crisis on the table
By Sen. Ron Menor
Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing Committee
The Hawai'i Legislature will grapple with several issues critical to consumers during this session, none more important than the high cost of prescription drugs for those without drug coverage or who have inadequate coverage through their health insurance.
State government must take immediate and effective action to deal with this problem. Otherwise, rising prescription drug costs will wreak havoc on the financial well-being of many Hawai'i residents and businesses, as well as state government and the health programs it funds. And it will force many to choose between their health and other necessities such as food and shelter.
Drug companies are many times more profitable than other large companies, contributing to the perception they are profiteering over a captive market. The companies claim high profit margins are necessary to finance the considerable expense of research and development to bring new and better drugs to market. They also say that increased costs are a result of greater demand for more expensive drugs.
However, the perception is that this demand has largely been created by the companies themselves, as any television viewer knows. The explosion of television and radio ads encouraging the public to ask their doctor for brand-name pharmaceuticals has increased significantly in the past few years.
The problem of drug costs hits hard among senior citizens living on fixed incomes. It impacts baby boomers in their 40s and 50s, increasingly afflicted with the infirmities of aging, who are now confronted with a greater need for prescription drugs at the same time the cost of those drugs is skyrocketing. Families caring for elderly members also suffer from higher drug bills.
Employers throughout the state are reeling from increases in their employees' health insurance premiums brought about in large part by the escalating price of prescription medication. The public sector — read Hawai'i's taxpayers — also takes a direct hit when the costs of government programs, such as Medicaid, increase because of soaring drug expenditures.
In light of these concerns and the anxious calls legislators are receiving about this problem, expect to see the issue of reducing prescription drug costs become a top priority for the Legislature. Specifically, the Legislature will be carefully reviewing the actions taken by other states to address this problem.
In the absence of federal action to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit, as of July 2001, 29 states have implemented or are developing programs to help older and disabled residents pay for prescription drugs. Numerous other states are considering legislation to contain runaway prescription drug costs.
Some of the programs or legislation include state subsidies for low-income elderly and other groups, limiting the prices that pharmacies can charge certain customers, and tax credits to offset the amounts spent on prescription drugs.
Other options should also be considered for Hawai'i, such as creating buyers' clubs or purchasing cooperatives to help targeted groups obtain discounts on drug prices, or obtaining permission from the federal government to use Hawai'i's Medicaid program to provide discounts to some seniors who would not otherwise qualify for Medicaid. Moreover, the Legislature should seriously consider having Hawai'i join with other states to negotiate discounts from drug manufacturers.
To be truly effective in this undertaking, the House and the Senate will need input from as broad a cross section of our citizens as possible to craft a legislative remedy that delivers the most appropriate solution to the problem. I sincerely hope the citizens of Hawai'i will take the importance of this issue to heart and make their voices heard at the state Capitol. We cannot afford to let special interests dominate this discussion.
