Sharon Treat Quotations

Ultimately, we do have to fix the whole health care system in this country. But we don't have to wait for that to happen to get drug prices under control. We can do that now if the government would do the negotiating instead of turning over that job to private companies.

Under this plan, the state will end up folding its own programs, such as Medicaid, into the federal one, ... That means they'll be charged for Medicaid costs anyway. The state may end up paying more for less.

Maybe this is one way to move the federal government. It's a ridiculous way to be addressing the problem to go state by state, receiving threats from the government saying it's illegal, and yet states are doing it anyway. It just shows how desperate they are to come up with anything to reduce drug prices for their citizens.

The overall trend for many years now is that drug prices go up substantially more than the rate of inflation, and that continues to be the case. Even though it's up less than in the previous quarter, it is still a substantial increase, and this is added on to increases from previous quarters.

On a drug-by-drug basis, someone could save well over $1,000 a year. For someone who is not covered by the soon-to-be-rolled out Medicare program and isn't elderly and doesn't have any coverage, $1,000 is huge. It explains why some people are doing this. It explains why at least 22 states this year looked at legislation addressing importation.

And the incentives are completely wrong. It makes no sense to have multiple programs, and there is no provision for negotiating prices with the companies. Anyone who looked at the law as it was being passed knew that it was wrong, and now what we predicted is happening.

This is going to add fuel to the fire in terms of states' frustration with the federal government.

Unless we take significant steps to address that, it's going to continue to be the problem. States have attempted to address this, but are somewhat constrained in what they're allowed to do. It raises the question of why Congress is not taking steps to amend this. As long as Congress doesn't act, I think you're going to see states be as creative as they can in doing something themselves.

The idea is to set up several programs and let the consumer choose, ... But the problem is that a competitive model isn't good for everyone.