Improving Health Care

Boosting Health Coverage - Lowering Drug Costs

Prescription drug costs have gone through the roof in recent years. Brand-name prescription drug costs have jumped 35 percent since 1999, two-and-a-half times the rate of inflation. I support a plan to reduce drug costs by using the state's purchasing power and buying in bulk.

Around 1.1 million working people in Michigan are currently uninsured. Working families built this state and it's an outrage that so many lack health coverage.

Under my plan:

All 1.1 million uninsured people in Michigan will get health coverage, to be paid for with federal funds.
The state will use its bulk-buying power to reduce the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs through the Prescription Drug Fair Pricing Act.

Protecting Consumers from Dangerous Drugs

Michigan is the only state in the nation that exempts drug companies from consumer protection laws. An unfair law signed in 1996 gives drug companies a free ride when their products cause harm. Victims of dangerous drugs like Vioxx should be able to hold drug companies like Merck accountable. Drug companies continue to rake in massive profits while our consumers are put at risk.

This is my plan to protect consumers and hold drug companies accountable:

Repeal the total-immunity law and give consumers the power to hold drug companies accountable when they conceal or manipulate information about dangerous drugs like Vioxx.
End drug industry secrecy by requiring companies to reveal all marketing and research costs, something they don't have to do now.
Require drug companies to reveal all clinical safety test results so patients and their doctors will have all the information to make important health decisions. Currently, drug companies aren't required to do this.
Limit gifts from drug companies to doctors to $100 per year per company.