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 The California Drug Price Relief Act, also known as Proposition 61,
seeks to restrict state-run health programs from paying more for
medications than prices paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs, which is billed about 25 percent less for drugs than other
government agencies.
The poll of more than 1,900 registered voters conducted by the
University of Southern California (USC) and the Los Angeles Times
found that 23 percent opposed the measure.
It was conducted in early September, amid a surge in public scrutiny
of price hikes for Mylan NV's EpiPens, the emergency allergy
injections.
Mylan is the latest company to be caught up in the growing outrage
at big drug price hikes. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc
and Turing Pharmaceuticals have both been publicly criticized for
price increases.
On Thursday, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senate and House members,
including Arizona Senator John McCain, introduced legislation that
would force drug makers to justify to the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Resources price increases of more than 10 percent.
Opponents of the California measure, led by pharmaceutical companies
like Pfizer Inc, Merck & Co Inc and Amgen Inc, have raised $87.5
million to try to stop the measure. Proponents, led by the AIDS
Healthcare Foundation and the AARP, have raised around $10 million.
The Yes on Prop 61 coalition estimates that its plan would save
California taxpayers and consumers billions of dollars and
"ultimately force the drug companies to moderate price increases
across the board."
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But opponents, which include some labor unions and patient advocate
groups like the California Chronic Care Coalition and the Lupus
Foundation of Southern California, worry that a new price system
could result in a long bureaucratic process, limiting patient access
to vitally needed medications.
Most participants in California's low-income health program, known
as Medi-Cal, are covered through private insurance plans that are
paid a fixed fee for individual enrollees.
That means that Proposition 61, if approved, would apply to around
4.5 million Californians, including Medi-Cal fee-for-service, state
employees, university teachers and prisoners. It would not affect
private employer-sponsored insurance plans, Medicare, or insurance
sold on Obamacare exchanges.
(Reporting By Deena Beasley; Editing by Diane Craft and Bill Rigby)
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