Issue 2 pits emotion against complex drug pricing system

How we got here

Ohio Taxpayers for Lower Drug Prices, a bipartisan coalition, collected more than 200,000 signatures to get the Ohio Drug Price Relief Act on the Nov. 7 ballot as statewide Issue 2.

The two-line ballot language is very simple. It would require that state-funded health care programs like Medicaid pay no more for prescription drugs than the lowest price paid by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

It also gives the petitioners the right to intervene in any legal challenge brought against the law, with Ohio taxpayers picking up their legal fees.

Supporters of the initiative say it will cause a ripple effect, first saving the state up to $400 million a year by lowering its prescription drugs costs, and then putting pressure on the drug companies to offer those lower prices across the market.

But opponents say the approach is over-simplified and doesn’t take into account the complexities of the current drug market. They say the law will be impossible to implement and will in fact have a negative impact on many consumers.

Each side is spending millions on advertising, pitting emotional stories of struggling, everyday consumers against the economic reality of a complex, high-cost drug system that most Ohioans don’t understand.