Report Title:

Pharmaceutical companies; Affordable Drugs (SD1)

RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, residents of Hawaii and all over the United States pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii's uninsured residents pay excessive prices for prescription drugs; and

WHEREAS, in many cases, excess drug prices deny residents access to medically necessary health care, thereby threatening our residents' health and safety; and

WHEREAS, many residents are admitted to or treated at hospitals each year because they can not afford the drugs prescribed for them that could have prevented the need for hospitalization; and

WHEREAS, although some pharmaceutical companies have programs to assist with providing drugs for the needy, these programs are complicated and physicians have been reluctant to use them due to the varying eligibility requirements; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-First Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, the House of Representatives concurring, that pharmaceutical companies doing business in Hawaii are urged to develop a unified system that can be used by all companies to assist the needy who qualify for free medication; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the unified system developed be easy for consumers and physicians to utilize; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Director of Health facilitate the development of this unified system; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to Department of Health and all pharmaceutical companies doing business in Hawaii.