Dear Legislator:
Across
the country, states are confronting massive budget deficits, and Missouri is no
exception. As you pursue remedies to address a $500 million projected shortfall
this year and a $700 million gap for 2012, the National Taxpayers Union (NTU)
and its 7,300 members in Missouri urge you to avoid proposals that could worsen
the state’s fiscal woes. Among these are House Bill 821 and Senate Bill 236. We
are concerned that both pieces of legislation could cause millions in wasteful
prescription drug spending, decrease Missourians’ access to affordable
medicine, and shift these additional costs directly onto the backs of
struggling taxpayers.
Throughout
our 40-year-plus history, NTU has recognized the importance of private-sector
innovation and intellectual property protections for medical care services in
general and pharmaceuticals in particular. We contend that an environment in
which risk-takers are allowed to recover their development costs for brand-name
treatments can foster long-run economic and fiscal benefits. At the same time,
NTU has championed health care reforms that emphasize restoring the
consumer-provider relationship between doctors and patients, employing
cost-management and payment-efficiency improvements for government programs,
and empowering consumers with more choices about how to spend their dollars.
All
of these factors must be carefully weighed and balanced so as to nurture a
health care system that properly serves patients, providers, and taxpayers. We
believe that HB 821 and SB 236 fail to meet such a test. A key issue
surrounding this legislation is the use of generic medications, a most vital
tool in lowering prescription drug costs for all insured Missourians as well as
Medicare Part D and the federal and state taxpayer-backed Medicaid program.
Those
impacts are not speculative. I call to your attention a new study (click here)
from the American Enterprise Institute, which analyzed ten brand drugs expected
to go off patent in 2011 or 2012. The study predicts total annual overspending
of $289 million-$433 million ($3 million of which occurs in Missouri) due to
potential underutilization of therapeutically equivalent generics to these
medications.
In
addition to fiscal considerations, HB 821 and SB 236 add new layers of
regulation and bureaucratic interference in how plan sponsors can even
communicate to patients about savings opportunities. Furthermore, nearly half the states have
implemented reforms establishing more effective management and
information-sharing about drug-treatment options, which have maintained quality
of service for patients while yielding quantifiable budgetary savings. To
reverse this progress now, by passing HB 821 or SB 236, would be a grave
disappointment to Missouri’s taxpayers.
NTU
and its members hope you will strengthen, not weaken, the financial condition
of Missouri by opposing HB 821 as well as SB 236, and by supporting additional
measures to reform government health care programs. Toward these ends, we stand
ready to work with you now and in the future.
Sincerely,
Duane Parde
President
Letter
