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Ohio's Secretary of State Promises Action Soon on Proposal to Cap Drug Prices

Secretary of State Jon Husted
STATE OF OHIO

Ohio’s Secretary of State may soon have a decision on a proposal to cap the price the state pays for drugs it buys for Medicaid, prisons and other state-run programs. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports.

  Ohioans for Fair Drug Prices wants the state to pay no more for drugs than the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, which pays at least 20 percent less than the state does.

They say they’ve gathered enough valid signatures for the issue to be sent to state lawmakers for action, and have accused Secretary of State Jon Husted of delaying the proposal at the orders of drug makers. Joshua Eck speaks for Husted.

“We received a complaint about the petitions that the secretary reviewed and thought that it was worth looking into; the complaint was that some of the petitions had been mishandled.”

The complaint came from the pharmaceutical industry’s chief lobbying group. If the signatures are certified, lawmakers have four months to act or the group can gather more signatures and put the issue before voters.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.