Prevention of state agencies from paying more than the VA for drugs

I’ve been trying to think about this bill as a step toward single-payer health insurance, which I believe would be much more efficient than the current massive hodgepodge of employer-sponsored healthcare, insurance companies, and Obamacare subsidies (though Obamacare was overall a positive step by insuring millions). With single-payer, drug companies would negotiate once with the US government and prices would be openly known. I support 61 because leveling prices between Medi-Cal and the VA takes us on a path toward that goal.

To be sure, there would be some short-term winners and losers. The VA could end up paying over $1B more as drug companies renegotiate prices with them, and Medi-Cal users could end up without medicines the drug companies won’t budge on (drug companies may even be extra petty in negotiations given their opposition to setting a precedent). But these are all problems with moving to a single-payer model too, on a much larger scale. A slow consolidation of prices and negotiations, even with their pains, makes single-payer more tenable by reducing the later pain.