Kevin's Weblog

I avoided looking closely at Measure 44 until this evening because I figured anything to do with prescription drug coverage would be either mind-numbingly dull or mind-bogglingly complex or both. However, in this case, there’s already a program in place where the state negotiates reduced prices on drugs which are then available to poor seniors without coverage. This measure just extends that program to all residents of the state without prescriptions drug coverage. Since the administrative systems are already in place, and the negotiations already take place, there’s no marginal cost to extend the system to a larger pool of people. Consequently, there isn’t much not to like about this measure.

Aside: Despite the fact that I can easily put up a couple strawman arguments against this measure, apparently there’s not enough people opposed to it to come up with $500 to put a statement in the voter guide. So, this is one of those rare cases where there are only statements in favor.