By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau
MONTPELIER – House lawmakers, for the second time this year, easily approved a major health care reform bill Thursday including a provision to track free drug samples given to doctors, setting up a showdown with the Senate.
The two-hour floor debate Thursday focused little on the requirement that drug companies report when they give free pharmaceutical samples to doctors and more on another provision requiring chain restaurants to post the caloric content of their food.
Some House Republicans fought against an amendment added to S.88, the health care bill, that would require restaurants with 20 or more locations in the United States to post on a sign or menu how many calories are in each menu item.
An attempt to remove that language – modeled after part of the new federal health care law — from the proposed legislation failed in a vote of 98-36.
"I’m not sure why anyone would fight the desire of someone to be healthy, to know how many calories are in the pizza they are ordering," said Rep. Lucy Leriche, D-Hardwick, who said the extended debate on the issue left her "speechless."
Much of S.88 – an omnibus bill that hires a consultant to design new health care models for Vermont, expands the Blueprint for Health program and caps annual hospital budget increases – garnered little debate on the House floor Thursday.
But behind the scenes, lawmakers struggled with the question of what to do with a part of the bill that requires the drug companies to report to Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell when they give our free medication samples to doctors and physicians in the state.
House lawmakers wrote that part of the bill, but the Senate voted earlier this week to remove the language. Thursday morning, an hour before the floor debate, the House Health Care Committee voted 9-1 to put the language back in the bill.
That bill easily passed with a voice vote on the floor early Thursday afternoon.
"We know there are a lot of good things about samples," said Rep. Steve Maier, D-Middlebury, the chairman of the health care committee. "We also know it is a very effective marketing tool for the drug companies."
Some Vermont doctors lobbied hard against the bill, including Montpelier Dr. Deborah Richter, a prominent supporter of a single-payer health care system.
She accused some lawmakers and advocates of trying to slander her by pointing out that her office, according to a recent report from the attorney general’s office, received gifts from drug companies in 2008 and 2009.
Richter said those reported gifts – both of which were valued at less than $100 – were for doughnuts, pens and notepads that drug representatives brought to her office. She said she worried that doctors will stop accepting free drug samples out of fear that they could be attacked politically.
"This is why I’m afraid of what will happen if this passes," she said.
But Rep. George Till, D-Jericho, a doctor and a member of the House Health Care Committee, said the bill has been misrepresented by opponents. Nothing in the proposed legislation bans free samples or requires doctors to do anything different than what they are doing now.
He said the names of doctors who receive free samples will be private and kept in the attorney general’s office. This information is useful to watch for prescribing patterns, he explained, to determine if the samples are influencing what doctors prescribe to patients.
"Nothing will change for doctors or prescribers," Till said. "We’ve been signing for samples for almost 15 years."
The House’s approval of the health care bill with the language on free samples attached sets up a possible showdown with the Senate, with possibly just days to go before the end of the 2010 legislative session.
Sen. Doug Racine, D-Chittenden, the chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and a candidate in this August’s gubernatorial primary, has made it his mission this year to pass S.88. He wrote the part of the bill calling for a consultant to design new health care models, including a single-payer system.
Racine said either the Senate will agree with the changes made by the House or the bill will be killed. He would rather not see that second option happen.
"I think people on both sides of this debate are losing sight of the importance of the bill itself," Racine said. "If we don’t do anything, the cost of health care in Vermont will grow by another $1 billion in the next three years."
The Senate is expected to take up the bill again on Saturday.
daniel.barlow@rutland herald.com