Prop 61 - yes or no?

[stopbush]

Lots of anti-61 ads on TV saying it would raise drug prices for vets. CA Dems have not taken a position.

Prop 61 says that CA government agencies cannot pay any more for prescription drugs than the VHA-negotiated price, which is always the lowest price paid by a federal agency for drugs.

Looks to me like passing it would be a good thing. I don't see how it hurts vets.

Any ideas?

[winetourdriver]

1. Big Pharma

The feeling I get (if someone has good hard info, speak up) is that Big Pharma is reacting to any possible cap on their profits. Plus the nature of the ads, they are beating you over the head with the flag, always makes me a bit suspicious.

[KamaAina]

2. The vet thing is a strawman

Big Pharma would have you believe that if 61 passes, the VA price would go up across the country so the California's doesn't go down. Screw them. Vote Yes.

[4lbs]

3. Bernie Sanders supports it. Big Pharma is against it. That should say it all.

Big Pharma is sponsoring anti-61 ads saying it will raise drug prices.

Really? Seriously?

When has big pharma ever been against higher drug prices?

"Uh oh, our drugs are costing too much and we are making too much money. Our shareholders are complaining they are getting too rich off all the stock dividends."

Reality is that it will force drug prices lower, which big pharma doesn't want.


To see how to vote, you don't even have to read the text of the prop. Just look at the groups and individuals who are for and against it, and see which ones you identify with. Simple as that.

[Agnosticsherbet]

4. Disgusted With Sky-High Drug Prices, California Voters Take On Big Pharma (VOTE YES)

Disgusted With Sky-High Drug Prices, California Voters Take On Big Pharma
Enormous public frustration with the skyrocketing prices of essential medicines in the US has not yet led to any meaningful reform. But a historic initiative on the November ballot in California, championed by health care and consumer advocates and fiercely opposed by multinational drug corporations, may finally rein in Big Pharma.

It is hard to overstate the level of dysfunction in the US medicines system. The headline-producing greed of "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli was just the most dramatic example of a pharmaceutical industry whose patent monopolies grant it immunity from market forces while its political clout shields it from government regulation. Taking full advantage of taxpayer-funded research, drug corporations make record profits, even by Fortune 500 standards, and pay their CEOs as much as $180 million a year. Those corporations spend far more on incessant marketing to consumers and physicians than they do on research -- part of the reason they have largely failed to develop new medicines that address the most deadly illnesses and diseases.

As for the patients who rely on those medicines, pharma lobbying has ensured that the US Medicare program is alone among industrialized nations' government health plansin not negotiating down the price it pays for medicines, causing US patients to pay far and away the highest global price for necessary drugs. One in every five US cancer patients can't afford to fill their prescriptions, and many seniors on Medicare are forced to cut their pills in half to stretch their supply.

[TeamPooka]

5. Vote yes! Big Pharma is the one running those ads so they can keep gouging on price.