Improve health care by controlling drug prices
The efforts of the current Congress to change access to health insurance hardly encourages hope for controlling drug costs.  Any substantive changes to bring prescription drug prices under control has to come from the grassroots. 

Derickson K. Lawrence

The efforts of the current Congress to change access to health insurance hardly encourages hope for controlling drug costs. Any substantive changes to bring prescription drug prices under control has to come from the grassroots.

The sick, the elderly, the poor, the disabled, and the middle and working classes deserve better.

The U.S. represents the largest pharmaceutical market in the world, so why are we paying twice or three times as much as in other countries? There are no competitive market forces driving prices. We have to pursue change in two areas: consumer discretion and choice. And this is right time to do so because there appears to be broad-based support to lower drug prices. A Kaiser poll conducted in April shows that large percentages of Americans — including Democrats, Republicans and independents — support multiple actions to control drug prices.

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In March, a coalition of regional groups began working on solutions. Officials from the New York State Suburban Hospital Alliance (representing 51 hospitals in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island), the health-care network Northwell Health, the Westchester Homeowners’ Coalition and other groups built consensus around certain priorities, and then consulted with the New York State Medical Society, state legislators, leaders of Westchester County and other stakeholders.

We settled on a two-pronged approach to promoting consumer discretion and choice when it comes to purchasing prescription drugs.

The first approach is to improve price transparency. A bill in the state Legislature (A8046, S6629), introduced last session by Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, D-Mount Vernon, and state Sen. George Latimer, D-Rye, would require pharmacies to provide consumers with the retail, pre-insurance price of a drug before the prescription is filled.

If drug prices are disclosed to a prospective purchaser, it would allow for both discretion and the convenience to shop around. This action is not a panacea. It does not address the internal price dynamics occurring among the drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers and insurance companies. But it would put some control back in the hands of consumers, an important first step.

The second approach, which will have to be fleshed out in the fall, is to push for New York State to pilot its own single-payer prescription drug dispensary. A state-run dispensary would compete with existing pharmacies, providing consumers with real choice. Having such choice, along with price transparency, would be particularly important if Congress imposes a cap on Medicaid funding that states would receive for each person enrolled.

While there is much debate about a single-payer health-care system, a single-payer dispensary for prescription drugs could receive widespread support. There is an opportunity here for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to lead on a key national issue by commissioning a bipartisan group to pursue a pilot program.

State legislators are in recess in their districts for the next six months. We want to use that time to build support for these initiatives. One way to do that is by having towns, cities and counties across the state pass resolutions of support for price transparency legislation and a pilot drug dispensary. In the wake of Washington's inaction, New York State can lead the nation in moving to lower prescription drug prices, making a difference in the lives of 20 million New Yorkers.

The writer, a Mount Vernon resident and former congressional candidate in the 16th District, chairs the Westchester County Homeowners' Coalition.