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  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Schwarzenegger pays off his bribers
  • Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 12:40:07 -0700

An "honest" politician is one who when bought, stays bought. Schwarzenegger stayed bought---the dishonest pain, sometimes death he inflicted on Californians will drive him from office unless Congress bails him out by legislation legitimizing purchase of drugs from Canada, England, et. al.


The New York Times
------------------------------------------------------------------------


October 1, 2004


Schwarzenegger Vetoes Bills Seeking Drugs From Canada

*By JOHN M. BRODER*

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed several bills on Thursday that would have made the state the middleman in large-scale consumer purchases of prescription drugs from Canada.

Mr. Schwarzenegger said the bills were illegal under federal law and did not have adequate provisions to ensure the safety of imported medicine. He said he was addressing the high cost of medications by negotiating directly with pharmaceutical companies to win discounts for the estimated four million low-income Californians who do not have prescription drug coverage.

In his veto message on the main bill, which would have set up a state-run Web site to help consumers find discount drugs in Canada, the Republican governor told the Democratic-controlled Legislature that such measures "oversimplify the complex safety, trade, supply and pricing issues involved in the marketplace." He said he shared the sponsors' concerns about high drug prices and pledged to introduce legislation next year that would enshrine in law his approach to lowering costs for the state's poorest residents.

Mr. Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill on the last possible day for acting on hundreds of measures sent to him at the end of this year's legislative session. He vetoed 71 bills on Thursday alone and 273 of 844 sent to him at the end of the session, the highest rate of vetoes by a California governor in at least a decade.

The sponsors of the drug import bills had hoped to make California a leader in the nationwide movement to drive down the cost of prescription drugs by allowing consumers to buy them directly from Canada, where their prices are 30 percent to 60 percent lower than in the United States.

Legislatures across the country are pressing the issue, with 24 states considering bills to explore importing drugs from Canada or elsewhere. West Virginia, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Vermont and Rhode Island have already enacted laws that take the first steps toward engaging in broad imports of prescription medicines from Canada, although the federal government is challenging the legality of some of the programs.

At the federal level, the House voted in July 2003 to allow Americans to buy prescription drugs from both Canada and Europe, but the measure has stalled in the Senate. Senator John Kerry has raised the issue in the presidential campaign, saying the Bush administration's opposition to such imports keeps prices high and favors drug companies over consumers.

One of the bills Mr. Schwarzenegger vetoed would have required the California Department of Health Services to set up a Web site to help consumers compare prices among Canadian pharmacies and buy medicines from them. Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and New Hampshire already provide similar Web sites, and Illinois will begin operating one within the next few weeks, the office of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich says.

Another of the vetoed bills would have required California to monitor foreign suppliers of prescription drugs to make sure they met American standards for purity, handling and packaging.

Assemblyman Dario J. Frommer, a Democrat who sponsored the main measure, said the veto demonstrated the power of the pharmaceutical lobby and its campaign contributions. Mr. Schwarzenegger has received more than $300,000 in contributions from drug companies since announcing his candidacy for the governor's office last year, according to state campaign finance records.

Mr. Frommer also said the governor's plan to negotiate discounts was inadequate because it would cover only a small fraction of California's 36 million people and because, he said, drug prices would be markedly higher even after the governor's negotiating than those available through Canada.

The Legislature passed the Frommer bill by sizable margins but not by enough to override the governor's veto. The assemblyman said the Legislature would be back next year, however, with a stronger version of the rejected measure.

"This will continue to be an issue here and around the country," Mr. Frommer said. "States will continue to take matters into their own hands."

Pharmaceutical companies bitterly oppose the reimporting of their products from overseas, saying it would pose unacceptable risks to consumers, who, the industry says, would not know what they were buying or from whom. Industry officials warn of counterfeit or improperly stored medicines' entering the United States.

They also complain that Canada and other countries that are potential suppliers to American consumers keep prices low by imposing cost controls, which, the companies say, rob them of the profits they need to pay for research to develop new medicines.

S. Kimberly Belshé, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, echoed some of the drug industry's concerns, but agreed with the bill's sponsors that many consumers paid too much for medicine.

Ms. Belshé said the governor would work with a variety of interests "to come up with an approach that will not only rhetorically reduce the cost of prescription drugs, but practically will accomplish that.''

"And if the industry falls short,'' she said, "there is no doubt we will be considering other means."


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  • [Homestead] Schwarzenegger pays off his bribers, Tvoivozhd, 10/01/2004

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