Santa Clara, Alameda, SF Counties Sign Onto Gov's Script Plan

SAN JOSE, CA — Gov. Gavin Newsom joined officials with Santa Clara, San Francisco and Alameda counties Thursday to announce a state-to-county partnership with the three of the largest Northern California public purchasers of prescription drugs in California.

The agreement is intended to combine clout and market power to take on drug companies in order to ultimately lower the cost of pharmaceuticals. Los Angeles – the state’s largest local purchaser of drugs – has already joined in the state’s efforts.

Santa Clara County Executive Jeffrey V. Smith, himself a doctor, expressed enthusiasm over the plan considering he views public health departments as a "safety net" to many citizens.

“Public health systems play an especially important and unique role in delivering care, services and treatment to the patients we serve, especially the uninsured and the underinsured. We need to explore all opportunities to reduce costs whenever possible, so that our limited resources can be better spent to help the homeless, the mentally ill and other vulnerable members of our community,” Smith said.

Just moments after being sworn in, Newsom launched a series of first-in-the-nation actions to make health care more affordable for all Californians and to move the state closer toward the goal of health care for all. Those proposals included an executive order to create the nation’s biggest single-purchaser system for drugs and to allow all Californians and private employers to sit together at the bargaining table across from big drug companies when negotiating prescription drug prices.

“Californians are coming together to use their market power and their moral power to demand fairer prices for prescription drugs,” said Governor Newsom. “Now we are able to go to the table with massive capacity to leverage the negotiation, drive down costs, put more money in your pocketbooks and make a difference in peoples’ lives.”

The announcement was part of the governor’s “California for All” Health Care Tour. A week after he released his revised budget that advances these priorities, Newsom is taking his proposals on the road as part of the statewide tour launched Tuesday in Sacramento. He'll travel across the state this week hosting events that highlight how the initiatives in his budget proposal would help families meet their health care challenges.

“In San Francisco and across the nation, high-cost prescription medications often force people to choose between seeking lifesaving treatment and putting food on the table for their families,” San Francisco Mayor Breed said. “By opting in to Governor Newsom’s prescription drug single-purchaser system, San Francisco and other counties across California will bring down the costs of these medications and increase access to health care for our residents.”

Breed was joined in sentiment by Alameda County's health care chief.

“Alameda County is pleased to stand with Governor Newsom to leverage the collective bargaining power of the State and its counties to lower the cost of prescription drugs for all Californians,” Alameda County Health Care Services Agency Director Colleen Chawla.

Recent data shows that health care and prescription drugs are chief among those concerns for Californians. American families have seen their prescription drug costs nearly double since the year 2000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and prescription drug pricing is one of the largest drivers of rising health care costs.

Governor Newsom’s health care proposals take those cost-and-access concerns head-on. They include:

• Making California become the first state to expand Medi-Cal coverage to all eligible undocumented young adults ages 19 through 25.
• Expanding financial help for families and individuals to buy health insurance in the private market and becoming the first state in America to give monthly discounts to middle-income families buying insurance.
• Taking on prescription drug prices by creating one of the nation's biggest single-purchaser systems for prescription drugs that allows government, individuals and potentially private employers to sit together at the bargaining table to negotiate drug prices
• Working with Congress to create a robust federal waiver to allow the state to move toward single payer and creating a commission to do the planning necessary for a transition under a Democratic president
• Proposing making a $100 million investment in reproductive and sexual health care.