By JEREMY M. ROODMAN
Legislative Gazette Staff Writer

Representatives from seven organizations announced a plan to reduce the price of prescription drugs. The coalition is hopeful their suggestions will be included in the final state budget.

The coalition consisted of Robert O’ Connell and Bill Ferris of AARP, Alan Lubin from New York State United Teachers and the Business and Labor Coalition of New York, Joe McMullen from Civil Service Employees Association, Deborah Stayman from Public Employees Federation, Chuck Bell from the Consumers Union and Russ Haven from New York Public Interest Research Group.

According to AARP, the cost of brand name prescription drugs used by people who are on Medicare rose 7.4 percent in 2007, which is two and a half times the rate of general inflation. The average treatment cost went from $80 per year per prescription in 2002 and rose to $151 by 2007.

The groups say New York State can save $100 million on drug purchases by using their large purchasing power.

“Through our collective strength, pooling our resources for bulk purchasing of prescription drugs,” Lubin said, “we can save New Yorkers literally hundreds of millions of dollars each year and reduce the rate of growth of health care costs.”

The first part of the proposed plan would be to implement bulk purchasing of prescription drugs in New York State, which was included in the governor and the Assembly’s proposed budgets, the coalition said.

New York has enormous purchasing power, it should be put to work in a bulk purchasing program,” Haven said, pointing out it would provide significant relief to those who are uninsured.

AARP released a report in January with testimony from New Yorkers age 50 to 64 about their concerns regarding health care. It was found that 11 percent of the people polled by AARP do not have health care, due to either unemployment or because an employer does not provide health care. Nineteen percent of all New York residents reported needing to delay re-filling their prescriptions on occasion because they couldn’t afford it.

The second part of the proposed plan would be to issue drug discount cards to those who do not have insurance. The card would provide savings of up to 25 percent on prescription drugs. The cards would be issued regardless of age, but AARP said this will be especially effective for seniors in the age range of 50-64.

“This initiative is something that will benefit everyone,” Bell said. “All the initiatives are in the public’s interest.”

The final part of the plan would be called academic detailing, which would try to counter marketing efforts of major pharmaceutical companies, and would implement objective research for doctors, rather than buying drugs simply because a drug company representative buys them lunch or gives them free merchandise.

The coalition says that to achieve this, unbiased researchers will visit doctors and will recommend what they should buy, rather than a representative trying to persuade them.

According to the AARP, drug companies spend more than $7 billion a year on gifts, trips and entertainment for doctors, to persuade them to prescribe newer, more expensive drugs, when older and less expensive drugs are often still available and just as effective.

According to Ferris, the only groups that have raised issue with these proposals are the pharmaceutical companies.

“The [prescription drug] problem is clear, it has been illustrated time and time again,” O’ Connell said.

Members of the coalition said that despite the turmoil of the previous week, Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson, expected to be sworn in as governor today, should put this proposal at the forefront of the proposed budget.

“When he was Senate minority leader, he supported these issues,” Ferris said. “The problem with high cost prescription drugs has not stopped.”

“One of his first jobs will be to produce a budget for the state. What we are offering him today is hundreds of millions of dollars to use in other areas,” Lubin said. “This is something he should be looking at immediately and we intend to make that crystal clear.”

A proposal similar to the bulk purchasing proposal was included in the Assembly’s budget, as well as the Executive Budget. A proposal similar to the drug prescription card is in the Senate’s budget, however, it was only for those in the 50- to 64-year age range, rather than all consumers.