Tuesday, May 27, 2003 | 8:53 a.m.
In 2000 the state of Maine approved a plan to require drug makers to lower their prices for people without health insurance. If the companies refused to cooperate, then the state would make it more difficult for them to sell their drugs to patients enrolled in Medicaid, a program that provides health care for the poor and is also a lucrative business for drug makers.
The drug makers opposed the plan, saying it violated interstate commerce protections and that it interfered with the federal government's responsibility to set rules for Medicaid, a national program that the states administer. The plan never went into effect because drug makers' lawsuits successfully prevented its implementation. That all changed last week. In a sensible ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that it was OK for Maine to go ahead with its plan, holding that it didn't harm interstate commerce. The court hinted that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could block Maine's plan if chose to do so, but at this time the justices saw no reason to stop the state from going forward.
Those who don't qualify for Medicaid because their income is too large, but who also are too poor to obtain insurance on their own, currently don't have an HMO or a state government acting on their behalf collectively to get discounted rates for prescription drugs. What Maine and other states want to do isn't much different from what HMOs currently do in their negotiations to hold down the price of drugs for their patients. Ideally, the federal government would take the lead in lowering drug prices for all Americans without insurance, prices that routinely see double-digit percentage increases every year. But Congress isn't likely to act soon, so we hope other states, including Nevada, follow Maine's lead.
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