Ohio “Drug Price Relief Act” Ballot Update

We have previously written about the ballot proposition that is scheduled to be on the ballot in Ohio this November as Issue #2. – An analysis by former Ohio Budget Director Greg Browning has found that a key claim by proponents of the so-called Ohio Drug Price Relief Act is “simply false and without merit.” Backers of the November ballot issue have repeatedly asserted that passing the initiative would save Ohio at least $400 million per year. But Browning, who served as Ohio Budget Director from 1991-98, says that in making that claim, proponents appear to have “ignored the significant discounts Ohio currently receives on prescription drugs” and thereby “used faulty logic involving the most basic of relevant policy and fiscal realities.”  As evidence of the incorrect assertions, Browning notes, “In FY 2015, Ohio Medicaid spent over $2 billion on prescription drugs for those three million recipients. However, after a mandatory Medicaid discount of 23.1 percent plus numerous additional supplemental rebates that Ohio negotiated, this number was reduced to approximately $1.5 billion. Initiative backers appear to ignore these realities. Instead, they assume Ohio could apply a simple, across-the-board reduction of 20 to 24 percent per year to its current spending.” Dale Butland, Communications Director for Ohioans Against the Deceptive Rx Ballot Issue, stated, “This is a perfect example of why the so-called Ohio D...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs