Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1268

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Publication type: news

Goldstein A.
Edwards to Offer Health Plan
The Washington Post 2003 Jun 5

Full text:

Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) today is scheduled to become the latest presidential candidate to expound on health care, which is emerging as a dominant issue within the crowded field for the Democratic nomination.

Unlike four of his primary opponents, who have offered large-scale plans to provide health insurance to most Americans who lack it, Edwards’s proposal will focus on the part of the health care system in which prices have been increasing the most: prescription drugs.

In a speech before the Campaign for America’s Future, Edwards is to lay out a six-point plan to make medicine more affordable. According to campaign documents, one of those points reprises legislation he has sponsored that would change U.S. patent law to give patients access more quickly to generic drugs, which typically are less expensive than their brand-name counterparts.

Edwards plans to urge Congress to require that drug companies include more complete information in advertisements — and pay fines if they break the rules. “We are not selling paper towels here,” he plans to say. “We are talking about people’s lives.”

He will call for increased regulation of companies that manage pharmacy benefits, including disclosure of whether special deals they have with drug manufacturers influence which medicines they allow patients to obtain. Other aspects of his plan would try to help the federal government and states secure lower drug prices in the Medicare and Medicaid programs; expand federal investigations into whether drug companies charge the government more than legally allowed; and review drug patent laws and whether manufacturers are using federal research subsidies to make true advances in therapies.

A spokeswoman said Edwards will issue a health insurance plan in the future but added, in a dig at some of his Democratic rivals: “He’s concerned that people are wary of politicians overpromising and underdelivering on health care. Government should take whatever steps it can do now to promote cost containment.”