July 21, 2004

EDITORIAL
Rising drug costs have to be controlled
It’s not a good situation.

   West Virginia, with its older, sicker and poorer population, ranks second in the nation for the rate of prescription drug spending, a recent study shows.
   West Virginians spent 3 percent of their total income on prescription drugs in 2002, following Tennessee’s rate of 3.1 percent, according to a study just released by the Health Reform Program at Boston University’s School of Public Health.
   The national average is 1.87 percent, the study found, and the lowest rate is 1.3 percent for California.
   The study looked at the average number of prescriptions per person and the average price per prescription, weighing those findings against the state’s average per capita income.
   “ We found drug cost burdens generally heaviest in poorer, sicker, older states, and where more people are uninsured,” the study’s authors, Alan Sager and Deborah Scholar, reported.
   That would certainly be the case in the Mountain State.
   West Virginia has the nation’s highest median age, 38.9, according to the 2000 U. S.
   Census.
   The Mountain State’s per capita personal income was $ 21,771 in 2000, compared to a national average of $ 29,537, economic researchers have said.
   And, according to the study, West Virginia’s illness rates are far above national averages.
   Meanwhile, the report also found that prescription drug costs grew from 1.2 percent in 1998 to nearly 1.9 percent in 2002 nationally and from 2.1 percent in 1998 to 3.0 percent in West Virginia.
   “ Given that trend, something has to be done to control costs,” said Delegate Dan Foster, D- Kanawha, a physician. “ It’s just not sustainable ... That’s why it’s very important to do what we can to make drugs more affordable.”
   We couldn’t agree more.
   Not surprisingly, the study suggests reducing drug costs.
   But Wanda Moebius, spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, argued that might not be the best conclusion.
   “ By advocating price controls on prescription drugs, Sager is treating the symptom and not the disease,” Moebius said. “ We need to do a better job of improving health overall, improving treatments — not limiting them — and driving down costs while improving the lives of patients.”
   While she makes a good point, we think Foster’s point is the more valid.
   We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Something has to be done to control drug costs — especially here in West Virginia with its older, sicker and poorer population.