Okay, in terms of blogging, this is cheating a little bit, because I've already written about my prescription drug plan. But here is the letter I wrote to the Columbia Daily Tribune about it. Enjoy!
- sean
Missouri should negotiate better prescription deals
Published Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Editor, the Tribune:
Hundreds of thousands of Missourians are being crushed under the weight of uncontrolled prescription costs. Other states are finding market-driven solutions to this problem. It is time for Missouri to help our residents save money on their prescriptions.
One solution does not have to include lots of money. All we must do is look to Maine - as well as California and Hawaii, which followed Maine’s lead - and leverage the buying power of Missouri’s Medicaid program to negotiate better prescription drug prices.
Doesn’t that make sense? Isn’t negotiating better prices always a good idea? It almost seems un-American to suggest otherwise.
Missouri could negotiate better prescription drug prices. Maine does it every day. It tells drug companies, "Cut your profit margins on Drug X, or we won’t put it on Medicaid’s preferred drug list, which means fewer people will buy it and you will make less money."
The result is that hundreds of prescription drugs are discounted by an average of 25 percent for brand-name drugs and an average of 50 percent for generics.
In the "Maine Rx Plus" program, residents who make as much as 350 percent of the federal poverty level and don’t have prescription drug coverage qualify for the program. More than 100,000 Maine residents enjoy the program’s benefits.
The program has proved itself since 2004, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared it constitutional.
Doesn’t Missouri deserve a program that will cut drug prices without a massive outlay of taxpayers’ money? Don’t we need to do something?
Sean Spence
Candidate, Missouri's 25th House District
www.SpenceCampaign.com
seanspence@earthlink.net
573-823-1308 (mobile)
10 S. Ninth St.
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