Message from the Governor

Until now, many Washington senior citizens have faced a cruel dilemma every month. Many must choose between paying for needed medicine or paying for other essentials like food, heat and housing.

Yesterday, we did something about skyrocketing prescription drug costs. I signed into law Washington's landmark prescription drug legislation. The new law contains all of the key elements of the original executive request legislation I proposed at the beginning of the session.

The new law allows state agencies to adopt a "preferred" drug list created by a committee of medical professionals. The panel will look at classes of drugs. They will evaluate, and select medications that are equally effective but offer the best price. After the list is compiled, we will negotiate with drug companies for even lower prices. This will include companies on the list, and those who did not make the list.

The state will save money¯tens of millions of dollars, because we pay for the cost of prescription drugs for hundreds of thousands of low-income seniors, children, injured workers and state/local employees. We will also extend our purchasing leverage to the public. People over 50, as well as the disabled, will be able to purchase at the same lower prices too, as long as they are under 300% of the federal poverty level. Pharmacists will be authorized to use the list and to substitute preferred drugs for the ones prescribed by doctors.

The new law also establishes a clearinghouse to help low-income seniors obtain quality prescription drugs that are available free or at low cost from pharmaceutical companies, using a toll free hot-line. The clearinghouse will provide information on generic drugs and discount purchasing clubs.

This legislation has been a long time coming. I signed Executive Order 00-04 in late 2000 to offer prescription drug discounts through the Health Care Authority of Washington¯the AWARDS program. The AWARDS discounts were a good idea and a good start. Unfortunately, the program was challenged in the courts and overturned in late 2001. We tried again in 2002 to obtain clear legislative authorization, but we were unsuccessful. Fortunately, we did not give up.

We expect the discounts to be available within the next 12 months. Let's build on this progress and continue to fight the high cost of health care. And let's continue to demand that our President and our Congress give the health care crisis the national attention it deserves.

Sincerely,

Gary Locke
Governor