02/06/2003

By WILLIAM McCALL, AP Writer

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said Thursday he is going to meet with the governors of Idaho and Washington to find ways to reduce "skyrocketing" prescription drug costs in the Northwest.

"This is not a state-by-state issue, this is a regional and a national issue," Kulongoski said.

The talks with Washington Gov. Gary Locke and Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorn are part of a five-point plan that includes a meeting of public and private employers to find ways to control prescription drug costs. Those costs now exceed $1 billion for the current two-year budget cycle in Oregon, Kulongoski said.

Gov. Kulongoski talks at a senior center. (KGW Photo)

Labor groups and seniors have been pushing hard for Kulongoski to cut prices for prescription drugs, which have hit the elderly particularly hard. Several told the governor they are paying more for medicine than they receive in retirement benefits.

"No senior citizen should have to choose between paying for food or their rent or pay for medicine," Kulongoski said.

The Democratic governor said he also will start a statewide consumer education campaign on prescription drug choices and encourage eligible low-income seniors to sign up for a program offering Medicaid rates for drugs for an annual $50 fee.

In addition, Kulongoski said he has directed his staff and the Oregon Office of Health Policy and Research to review prescription drug programs for state agencies to find any savings.

"It is about making consumers and doctors and insurance companies smarter about how they purchase drugs," the governor said.

Tim Nesbitt, Oregon AFL-CIO president, said that about 10 cents to 15 cents of every health care dollar spent by private employers goes for prescription drugs.

"The cost of health care and the rapidly rising cost of prescription drugs is a major problem," Nesbitt said.

But he said studies have shown that prescription prices are "notoriously sensitive to the size of the purchaser," including a study that showed the federal Veterans Affairs hospital system paid about half the cost for drugs paid by the average individual at a retail pharmacy.

Kulongoski said that was more evidence Northwest states should work together, as many East Coast states have done.

"There have been efforts to develop market share on the East Coast for some time but they've made mistakes we can avoid repeating," the governor said.

Kulongoski also urged residents of other Northwest states to take advantage of an Internet site created by AARP, the state health policy office and Oregon Health & Science University. The site compares name-brand drugs to generic drugs and evaluates their effectiveness for consumers and heath care professionals.

Former Gov. John Kitzhaber, who is a physician, helped create the drug comparison site in hopes that it would become a national reference source.

Before he outlined his plan on Thursday, Kulongoski said he also is working to toughen a 2001 law that was designed to encourage doctors to write prescriptions using an approved list of lower-cost but clinically effective drugs for people on the Oregon Health Plan.

The pharmaceutical industry fought passage of the law in the 2001 Legislature, and at one point sent nearly two dozen lobbyists to the Capitol to try to derail the effort.

Jim Gardner, a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the industry is ready for another fight if Kulongoski seeks to force doctors to prescribe drugs off a state-approved list.

"It's a bureaucrat making your health care decisions rather than your personal physician," Gardner said. "We think the doctor-patient relationship is a personal and sacred one, and it ought to stay that way."

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)