Beyond 'Obamacare': State initiatives refocus health debate

WASHINGTON (AP) — Moving beyond "Obamacare," political activists are looking to state ballot questions to refocus the nation's long-running debate over government's role in health care.

With ballots still being finalized in some states, other questions may include raising tobacco taxes, expanding use of marijuana for medical treatment and allowing terminally ill patients to have physician assistance in dying.

California's Proposition 61 would bar drug companies from charging state programs more than the discounted price paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

[...] it would not apply to medications purchased through private insurers who contract with the state to cover beneficiaries in the Medi-Cal program for low-income people.

In Colorado, a measure known as Amendment 69 would create ColoradoCare, a government-financed system that would cover most state residents, largely replacing private insurance.

Which ballot question has a better chance? "Of the two, I probably think the prescription drug piece, because people have so much anger and antipathy toward the pharmaceutical industry," said McDonough, now a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Supporters of the California drug costs proposal say it would save state taxpayers money; opponents say such savings are not a sure thing and the whole scheme could prove to be unworkable.