US States Should Have Authority to Negotiate Medicaid Prescription Drug Prices, Editorial States

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 07 Jun 2005 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Federal officials have approved multistate drug purchasing pools -- such as one for Louisiana, Maryland and West Virginia -- but the government "generally make[s] it very difficult for government programs to be smart shoppers because of the enormous influence of the pharmaceutical lobby," a... Baltimore Sun editorial states. For example, states are prohibited from "combining their employee or prison populations" to receive added discounts, according to the editorial. "With the growth of Medicaid over the next 10 years expected to far exceed the states' ability to pay their share, such profit protections for the pharmaceutical industry are indefensible," the editorial adds. The editorial concludes that before Congress approves any plan to cut federal Medicaid spending, "states ought to be allowed to take advantage of whatever bargains they can find" (Baltimore Sun, 6/6).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

• Additional
• References
• Citations