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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Frommer Claims He’ll Fight This Time

Last year, Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer successfully pushed bills through the legislature that would direct consumers to Canadian pharmacies to buy prescription drugs and allow state agencies to consolidate drug purchasing in order to negotiate for lower prices only to see the bills vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But despite defeat, Frommer is picking the same fight this year and he has no reason to think the governor will be any more likely to sign the bills this time around. “My motivation is simple. In talking to constituents in my district they are absolutely outraged by the rising costs of health care, especially the issue of the constantly rising cost of prescription drugs,” Frommer said. “We pay more than any other country in the world, yet taxpayers are subsidizing about a third of the research and development that pharmaceutical companies do. What good are breakthrough drugs that you and I pay for if people can’t afford to buy them?” This time, Frommer said, he and his colleagues are prepared to play hardball. If they can’t get the governor to sign their legislation, Frommer said they’re prepared to go around him. “We’re looking at a ballot initiative. If we can’t deal with the governor and the legislature, we have a measure that we think people would be very supportive of in going to the ballot,” Frommer said. “Of course, we would like to negotiate with (Schwarzenegger).” Frommer said he’d rather come to a consensus than resort to a ballot initiative, but added that Schwarzenegger himself has shown how useful if divisive talk of a ballot initiative can be. “We have a governor who has come and used the ballot initiative as a way to bully the legislature into getting his way. He did it last year with the budget and we never really called his bluff,” Frommer said. “We said, ‘okay, if you want to play that way, if you’re going to put stuff on the ballot, we’re going to put some stuff on the ballot if you won’t work for us.” “He can call me a loser or a girly-man or whatever, but his mistake was calling teachers, firefighters and nurses special interests and monsters,” Frommer added. Frommer said that Schwarzenegger has been eager to play nice in the past last year he collaborated with the assemblyman to pass a bill improving the quality of nursing homes throughout the state. But Frommer said that Schwarzenegger has taken large donations from pharmaceutical companies, more than any other governor in the country, and may be less willing to sign bills that his corporate donors disagree with. State of Reform Larry Krutchik, regional director for the Healthcare Leadership Council briefed VICA’s Health Care Committee last week on the current state of federal efforts at medical liability reform. Long one of the most contentious issues facing the medical community, VICA supported efforts at reform in 2003. The group supported a cap on non-economic and punitive damages and imposing a scale cap on attorneys’ fees and a statute of limitations. “Medical liability reform is mostly driven by the impact of rising malpractice insurance premiums. Physicians in areas like obstetrics and neurosurgery have stopped seeing patients and certain areas in the country are seeing a shortage of providers,” said Krutchik. The reform efforts stalled in 2003 but the issue is on the table again this year, and President Bush indicated he’d be supportive of major reform. U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) authored a bill that is working its way through the House of Representatives now. California already has laws in place to limit malpractice damages, but the rising costs of malpractice insurance in other states drives up health care premiums across the country, according to the bill’s proponents. Hospital Watch The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a new Web site on April 1, allowing patients to compare the quality of care at their local hospitals. The Web site, Hospital Compare, can be found at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. It reports how often hospitals provide recommended care at acute care hospitals and smaller hospitals. Visitors can see how often hospitals follow the recommended care for patients being treated for heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia. The Web site will also report whether hospitals are accredited by groups like the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Hospitals are compared with all of the participating hospitals throughout the country, and with hospitals participating in each region. The Web Site was created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Hospital Quality Alliance. Another Web site that will compare costs at hospitals is expected to launch in the future. Staff Reporter Jonathan D. Colburn can be reached at (818) 316-3124 or by e-mail at [email protected].

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