No concensus on reuducing drug prices

Proposals from the administration and legislators of both major parties have not produced price reductions.

Prescription drug price reduction is supposed be one of the policy areas on which Congress and the Trump administration agree. But an array of proposals from the administration and legislators of both major parties, from Canadian drug imports to Medicare price negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry, have not produced consensus — much less price reductions.

That leaves it largely to the states, which passed scores of drug price-reduction bills in 2019. In Harrisburg, state Rep. Dan Frankel, an Allegheny County Democrat, plans to introduce a bill to emulate a new program that Maryland launched in 2019, and which several other states since have adopted — a state drug price accountability board.

The board would examine spikes in prescription drug costs, require pharmaceutical companies to justify prices for certain drugs, and potentially set price caps on what Pennsylvanians would have to pay for the drugs at retail.

New brand name prescription drugs which enter the market at $30,000 or more per year or course of treatment;

Under the pioneer Maryland program, the board reviews pricing of any new prescription priced at more than $30,000 per year, existing medicines for which prices increase by more than $3,000 per year, existing generic medicines for which prices increase by more than 200% per year, and any prescription drug that creates funding problems for state-operated health care systems, including Medicaid.

Maryland’s board, in turn, is modeled on boards that many European governments use to assess and limit prescription drug prices.

The Maryland law applies only to local and state government employees, but an effort is under way there to expand it to all Marylanders. The Pennsylvania program should be written to apply to everyone.

Drug prices continue to be a principal driver of health care inflation, which ripples through the rest of the economy, including in the costs of governmentfunded health care benefits.

The Legislature should establish the board as a means of establishing pricing accountability.

— The Citizen’s Voice, The Associated Press

Attacks on U.S. elections should not surprise, given the power they convey.

This nation’s history of voter restrictions and suppression and other tactics to skew results runs deep from the poll taxes of the Jim Crow South to modern disenfranchisement strategies – voter identification provisions and purges that target poor and minority voters.

The act of voting powers our democracy and given the high stakes – the apportionment of resources and influence – the path to full access and participation has been uneven and rocky.

In 2016, hostile foreign actors entered the fray to convincing effect. Russian trolls spread disinformation campaigns on social media that inflamed voters’ divisions and informed their choices. Russia also attempted to interfere directly, by unsuccessfully trying to hack into voter registration records in 21 states, including Pennsylvania.

With none of those threats to our democracy eliminated, there is plenty to worry about as the nation heads into the pivotal 2020 presidential race.

But amid this atmosphere it appears that voters can feel secure where it matters most: the voting booth.

Erie County, along with all other counties in Pennsylvania, now has a new electronic voting system that protects the integrity of the election in at least two ways. The voting machines are not connected to the internet, so they are not at risk of being hacked, and they generate a paper ballot that is scanned into a computer and tabulated. If there is question regarding the scanned results, the totals can be verified the old-fashioned way, by counting the paper ballots before an audience.

These machines, 320 voting machines and 320 ballot scanners, cost nearly $3 million, but the expense is well worth it.

This is a fraught period for our democracy. Preserving access to the voting booth and ensuring accurate counts is foundational to its continued legitimacy. As our nation’s demographics change and power begins to shift with them, we must thwart homegrown efforts to rig the system in favor of any one group.

— Erie Times-News, The Associated Press