FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 25, 2003

Contact: Bruce Lott

Phone: 202.835.3474

PhRMA Statement on Governor Doyle’s Agreement to Join the Michigan-Vermont Plan

“We do not know the specifics of how this program might work or whether non-Medicaid patients would be included, but we are concerned that an effort patterned after Michigan’s current program could be harmful to patients. “According to a report issued last month by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Michigan’s current “pharmaceutical product list” is “so burdensome and time-consuming that, in some cases, beneficiaries were harmed.” The report said the state’s restrictive list of drugs available to Medicaid patients was particularly onerous for patients with heart disease, depression and diabetes, the Commission noted. We believe strongly that programs that result in limiting or denying access to medicines for a state’s most vulnerable patients is bad public policy and a violation of federal Medicaid law. PhRMA will continue to work to ensure that Medicaid patients are not denied the medicines their doctors believe they need.

PhRMA Internet Address: http://www.phrma.org