CSE to Gov. Wise: ‘Canadian-Style Health Care Isn’t the Answer’

Faced with a Medicaid-driven budget crisis, Governor Bob Wise is demanding “Canadian prices” on pharmaceuticals sold in West Virginia. Yet, if Governor Wise looked further at the Canadian system, he’d realize that Canadian-style health care is a prescription for disaster.

That’s why Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) on Friday is kicking off a statewide education campaign to stop Gov. Wise’s plans. As part of its campaign, CSE is launching a series of radio ads across the state and sending “Canadian Healthcare First Aid Kits” to state legislators and the Governor.

The first-aid kit includes a five-year calendar, so West Virginia citizens can schedule their emergency surgery at a pace consistent with the delays Canadian citizens must endure; and Alka-Seltzer, a bandage and aspirin – symbolizing the reduced treatment options that West Virginians face under the Governor’s plan.

“Wise’s proposed solution to West Virginia’s fiscal crisis is nothing more than a hidden tax on drugmakers – one that will force citizens to ultimately pay the price through the drastic reduction of services and lack of availability of life-saving drugs,” said CSE President Paul Beckner. “This would be one more blow to West Virginia’s ailing healthcare system. And patients will suffer as a result.”

West Virginia’s budget crisis has gained significant attention in recent months as the Governor and state legislature wrestle with how to maintain benefits while balancing the state’s fiscal concerns. Gov. Wise’s response is to shift the blame onto brand name drug manufacturers, demanding that these companies charge West Virginia’s Medicaid program the same prices as they provide to Canada’s government-controlled healthcare program.

“But Wise is wrong on several accounts,” Beckner said. “The Canadian healthcare bureaucracy sets the prices for prescription drugs, and drug makers are forced to accept those reduced prices or simply not market those drugs to Canadians.”

In Canada, these price controls means that many new, more effective drugs for life-threatening conditions like cancer and hypertension are simply not available. Additionally, the taxes required to pay for Canada’s bloated healthcare system consume more than 35 percent of the average Canadian’s income.

Moreover, a study by Columbia University economist Frank Lichtenberg found that every $1 spent on newer drugs saved $4 in hospital care. The reason: Because prescription drugs are more often used for preventive care, they stave off more debilitating, more costly medical conditions requiring expensive and lengthy hospitalization. While a $600 annual prescription for two leading cholesterol-reducing drugs may seem expensive, it is the long-term effect of those drugs that helps avert an emergency bypass operation and lengthy hospital stay at an average cost of $300,000, according to the study.

As part of its campaign to alert West Virginia citizens to the dangers of Wise’s plan, CSE is airing statewide radio ads and is delivering dozens of “Canadian Healthcare First Aid Kits” to state legislators and others.

The “Canadian Healthcare First-Aid Kit” highlights and debunks Gov. Wise’s repeated, misleading claims that a Canadian-style healthcare system and discriminatory price controls are appropriate models for West Virginia, Beckner said. It includes information showing the disastrous consequences associated with Canada’s government-controlled healthcare.

The West Virginia Preferred Drug List system — where regulators select which drugs will be allowed under Medicaid and how much the state will pay for them — is flawed, CSE asserted. CSE urged the state to adopt a system where:

• There is no state Preferred Drug List. Rather, physicians and patients should have complete access to whatever drugs are medically appropriate.

• Drug choices are based on safety and efficacy data, not drug costs. That means even if a drug is more expensive, if the doctor based upon past history of the patient determines that a specific medication needs to be used, then they should have access to it.

“The state of West Virginia should not stop patients from getting the drugs that they desperately need,” Beckner said. “Patients must not suffer because politicians make bad decisions.”

Ultimately, CSE noted, it will be Medicaid populations who will suffer the most from Wise’s flirtation with restrictive drug lists and price controls. By limiting access to the complete range of drugs available, the state would create further barriers for disadvantaged citizens to overcome when they seek healthcare services. Minority populations make up a significant percentage of the Medicaid population – nearly 25 percent in West Virginia. But new medicines are sometimes more effective in specific populations such as African-Americans.

In any case, if new medicines are limited by the state, any savings will be lost when minority Medicaid patients get sicker and require hospitalization.

“What are the true costs of Gov. Wise’s proposal?” Beckner asked. “Premature death, lost worker productivity and damage to West Virginia’s economy. All citizens, including our more vulnerable populations such as minorities and the elderly, should not have to settle for second-class healthcare.”

CSE Calls West Virginia to Action

CSE calls upon West Virginians to demand that Governor Wise: 1) stop advocating for a Canadian-like healthcare system in West Virginia; and 2) put an immediate halt to the secretive and discriminatory PDL development process. West Virginians should also demand that any PDL process include adequate public representation and that relevant documents and materials should be open to public scrutiny.

West Virginia should also examine other innovative methods of reducing Medicaid costs. Similar to Canada’s healthcare system, the Medicaid system needlessly separates patients from doctors by erecting a dependent health care bureaucracy. Some hospitals and clinics win funding, others lose it; some treatments and drugs win Medicaid reimbursement, others do not.

Through it all, the premium is placed not on quality of care and winning the trust and patronage of Medicaid beneficiaries, but on political sponsorship and lobbying.

As a result, much of the Medicaid budget is squandered through political funding contest and the inefficient allocation of resources.

Patients not only have little choice among caregivers, but also absolutely no incentive to be discriminating health care consumers. Millions are lost each year on unnecessary treatments, emergency room visits and excess capacity.