Cheaper medications may be on the way

This week, the House passed 20 bills ranging from criminal justice to boating to powdered alcohol. Two bills that I thought you might find interesting were about affordable medicine and organ donation education.

Most people buy their medications at their local pharmacy. Most pharmacists buy those drugs from middleman companies called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. PBMs buy the meds from the drug manufacturers like Pfizer or AstraZeneca. Because it makes them more money, PBMs want customers buying name brand meds instead of generics, or through insurance plans instead of cash.

PBMs frequently have requirements in their contracts with pharmacies that put a gag order on the pharmacists which do not allow the pharmacists to tell their patients how they can save money on their prescriptions. Pharmacists don’t like these restrictions, but PBMs love them since more money out of your pocket means more money in theirs.

HB1542 would lift the gag order on pharmacists, and allow them to tell their customers about cheaper prescription alternatives. The sponsor of this cost-saving bill has been working to get it passed for the last five years, and this year it has finally passed in the House. This is no small feat since lobbyists for the big drug companies routinely try to kill such bills. HB1542 passed by a vote of 138-7, and will now move to the Senate for consideration there.

Through my recent experience as a kidney donor, I have learned that the waiting list for a deceased kidney donation is 2-3 years. I have also learned through the Department of Revenue, which runs our local license offices where Missourians volunteer to be organ donors, that only about 50% of Missourians that could be on the organ donor list are. More organs donated equals more lives saved, plain and simple.

HB2129 would allow high school students to go through 30 minutes of education on organ and tissue donation. This education would happen one time at any point in the student’s high school career. The hope is that as more people are aware of the benefits and goodwill of organ donation, the more lives that will be saved.

HB2129 passed by a vote of 145-5, and now moves to the Senate.