Ohio residents without prescription drug coverage may soon receive discounts through a drug program in the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

House Bill 166, or the Prescription Drug Fair Pricing Act, was introduced to the Ohio House of Representatives last week. The purpose of this bill is to enable the state to create a program allowing discounts on prescription drugs to authorized distributors. The savings provided to the distributors would then be passed on to all Ohio residents without prescription drug coverage.

“Everybody gets discounts on prescription drugs except for the people paying on their own,” said Rep. Dale Miller, D-Cleveland, primary sponsor of the bill. “This bill is an attempt to get the market to work for the little guys.”

Many organizations, including Medicaid, the Veterans’ Administration and prescription drug insurance companies, already provide prescription drug discounts to people. These organizations attain discounts on prescription drugs because they are able to negotiate with the drugs’ manufacturers.

One of the specifications of the bill is the creation of a prescription drug program fund in the state treasury. This would increase the state’s negotiating power with the manufacturing companies and decrease the cost of prescription drugs for Ohioans taking part in the state-funded prescription drug program.

The money in this fund would be used to reimburse prescription drug manufacturers for the discount they provided to pharmacies, who would pass those savings on to prescription drug program participants.

Money in the prescription drug program fund would also be used to pay a professional fee to manufacturers of prescription drugs and to pay for the administrative cost of the program.

The bill requires pharmacies and distributors of prescription drugs, to submit claim forms to the director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. These claim forms would verify the amount of money to be paid to pharmacies in order to cover the difference between the drugs’ full price and the discounted price paid by program participants.

HB 166 is a reintroduction of HB 290 from the General Assembly. That bill, also introduced by Miller, was patterned after a bill enacted in Maine, said Sally Rickert, spokeswoman for Miller.

“The pharmaceutical industry filed suit against the Maine legislation, and now that case is going to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Rickert said.

She said the majority of Ohio’s House finds no sense in moving this bill forward until the Supreme Court determines the constitutionality of the Maine legislation.

“I am fully in support of this bill,” said Rep. Dean DePiero, D-Parma, one of the co-sponsors of HB 166. He emphasized the importance of affordable prescription drugs for groups such as the elderly and the working class.

“Senior citizens should not have to choose between their prescription drugs and whether they eat three meals a day,” DePiero said.

The bill is popular among voters, Miller said. He said its bipartisan sponsorship increases the chances of the bill passing during this session.

The Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs circulated a petition throughout Ohio last year in an attempt to pass legislation nearly identical to HB 166, said Dale Butland, spokesman for the coalition. He said the petition was signed by over 143,000 registered voters.

“Once our bill is passed, any changes that the Supreme Court may require in the law can be made easily and quickly,” Butland said. “The important thing is to get started and show people that Ohio will no longer cave in to the greed of the drug companies.”