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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Pendleton takes
step forward
with tourism
Pendleton has had a recognizable brand with its own legion of loyal
followers, is the title sponsor of this
and lucrative brand name for
year’s Pendleton Bike Week.
the better part of a century. The
Maroon 5, one of the biggest
Round-Up, the blankets, the saddles
and more recently the whiskey have touring acts in the country, is playing
the Pendleton Whisky Music Fest
carried the connotation of quality,
at the Round-Up Arena. That will
toughness and fine craftsmanship.
help prove that you
For decades, the
don’t always need a
city was content
It’s move that
cowboy hat to party
to revel in its
in Pendleton.
well-worn identity.
will pay off
And you can
But recently its
economically
look backward,
tourism offerings
to see how
have branched out,
and in quality too,
this evolution and
widening the tent to
bring in world-class
expansion has
of life for
talent and brands
moved
Pendletonians. slowly
forward: Zac Brown
that expand what
Band serenaded
Pendleton is known
roaring crowds,
for.
It’s a welcome move forward, and Ursula K. Le Guin read at the
First Draft Writers’ Series, cyclists
one that will pay off economically
welcomed riders from around
and in quality of life for
the Northwest, a yogi and brewer
Pendletonians.
invited fellow enthusiasts to events
Consider what the city will
at the rodeo arena.
showcase in the next few months:
The Pendleton Chamber of
An exhibit of work by Chuck
Commerce deserves much of the
Close, one of America’s most
credit for expanding the idea of
famous living artists, is showing at
what tourism and entertainment can
the Pendleton Center for the Arts
with the help of one of the premier
be in Pendleton. The Round-Up
collectors of modern art in the
deserves credit for recognizing the
world, Jordan Schnitzer.
grounds can do so much more than
One of Pendleton’s greatest
host a rodeo. People like Pat Beard,
connections to World War II will
Roberta Lavadour, Doug Corey and
be celebrated at the Eastern Oregon
Andy McAnally deserve credit, too,
Regional Airport next month,
for always thinking bigger and better
bringing crowds to celebrate aviation and working hard to turn those big
history that will hopefully build
ideas into reality.
into a permanent museum to draw
When people think Pendleton,
tourists.
they might always think of rodeo,
Live Wire, a regionally significant blankets, saddles and whiskey. But
radio show, will record here and
now they will think of other things
spotlight regionally significant
too: motorcycles, music festivals,
painters and local musicians.
art, literature, museums and fun,
and that Pendleton is always a great
Harley-Davidson, the most
famous American motorcycle
place to spend a weekend.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher
Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
The cost of prescription drugs
The (Yamhill Valley) News Register
A
ccording to the Milliman Medical
Index, the pre-insurance cost
of health care for the typical
American family has more than tripled
since the turn of the
21st century, rising
from $8,414 in 2001 to
$25,826 last year.
Popular targets of
blame for unaffordable
health care include
global pharmaceutical
giants known
collectively as Big
Pharma, along with
biotech startups eager
to cash in and real life
villains like Martin
Shkreli. Given that
lineup, it’s easy to see
why reducing drug prices is a major target
for politicians.
Drug outlays account for just 16
percent of overall health care costs.
However, they are rising the most rapidly,
and are among the easiest to identify.
A group of Oregon legislators is
championing a price-control measure
proposed as a potential national model
— House Bill 2387. Introduced by Rep
Rob Nosse, D-Portland, it would require
pharmaceutical firms to reimburse
insurers for any “excess costs” associated
with a drug.
The bill defines excess costs as those
exceeding the so-called “foreign price
cap” — the highest price paid for the
drug in any developed country other than
the U.S. If a cancer drug wholesaled for
$10,000 per treatment, while the highest
developed world price outside the U.S.
ran $6,000, the manufacturer would have
to reimburse insurers $4,000.
It sounds logical, right?
Except, there is nothing in the bill to
ensure the savings are passed on to the
consumer. The bill does nothing to reduce
the cost for families
or employers, only for
insurers.
It won’t shock you
to learn, then, that the
director of legislative
affairs for Regence
BlueCross BlueShield
of Oregon was on
hand for the bill’s
introduction.
A sibling bill was
introduced to provide
relief to pharmacy
benefit managers, who
are hired to negotiate drug prices on the
behalf of insurers.
PBMs are far from just an
administrative client. They wring billions
of dollars in rebates from manufacturers.
But the PBMs also play a role in rising
drug costs, as most of their dealings go
undisclosed. That makes it difficult to
exactly gauge the extent to which rebates
are actually being passed on to the
customer.
Put the puzzle pieces together
and check some campaign finance
contributions. You’ll find these two bills
don’t protect consumers from an “evil
profiteer.” They simply take from the
rich and give to the rich, creating loads of
additional regulations in the process, all
on the public’s dime.
That sounds like politics as usual to us.
Pharmacy
benefit
managers
wring billions
of dollars in
rebates from
manufacturers.
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public
issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website.
The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns
about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of
private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include
the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not
be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to 211 S.E.
Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
OTHER VIEWS
A public health crisis we can fix
T
Raquel Rosete was walking on the
he federal judge and legal
sidewalk. Brittanie Johnson, Brianna
scholar Guido Calabresi likes
to pose a conundrum to his law
Robinson and her sister Jade Robinson,
students. He asks them to imagine a
none of whom was yet 20, were
deity coming forth to offer society a
passengers returning home from a
wondrous invention, one that would
vacation. Every one of them was killed
make everyday life more pleasant in
by a distracted driver.
almost every way.
Unfortunately, stories like these
This invention comes with a cost,
David won’t persuade most people to
however. In exchange, the deity would Leonhardt give up distracted driving. We are
choose 1,000 young men and women
overconfident about our own driving
Comment
and strike them dead.
abilities. (I’m just going to glance at
Calabresi then asks the students if
my phone on this straightaway.) And
they accept the deal. In 30 years of giving the
smartphones, with their alerts, are so darn
lecture at Yale, the answer is almost always
enticing.
no. At which point he delivers the lesson:
“This is a really difficult traffic safety
“What’s the difference between this and the
problem, unlike any other one,” says David
automobile?”
Teater, a Michigan business executive who
Modern society is impossible to imagine
became an anti-distraction advocate after his
without the automobile, yet
12-year-old son, Joseph, was
it’s also one of the biggest
killed. Drunken driving and
destroyers of life. In the
seat belt-less riding don’t
United States, crashes claim
tempt drivers at almost every
1,000 lives every nine days.
moment. Phones do.
Last year, 40,000 Americans
Like most public-health
died, about as many as from
crises, this one requires a
breast cancer and more
societal solution. Today, not a
than twice as many as from
single state has a sensible law.
murder.
Most forbid holding a phone
We put up with these
while driving, but penalties
costs because we imagine
and enforcement are weak
them as unavoidable human
— and hands-free use is still
imperfection. We are willing
dangerous, studies show. The
to make some changes, like
distraction, not the physical
wearing seat belts and driving
act of holding a phone, creates
sober, which have caused deaths to decline
the problem.
gradually for decades. But we assume there
Think of it this way: Allowing hands-free
is no cure. We’ve accepted the deity’s offer:
talking and texting is akin to forbidding
modernity in exchange for 1,000 lives, again
drivers from getting drunk on liquor yet letting
and again and again.
them have a few beers before getting behind
The digital revolution, however, is
the wheel. Some companies, including Exxon
changing the calculation.
Mobil and Johnson & Johnson, have a better
It is both making the problem worse
approach. They have banned employees from
and creating a potential solution. First the
all smartphone use while driving.
bad news: Vehicle deaths are surging, up
The other answer is technology. “There is
14 percent in the last two years. It’s the
strong, robust technology available that could
first significant rise in a half century, which
solve a lot of the distracted-driving problem
qualifies as a public-health emergency. The
immediately,” Teater points out. Apple and
recent increase, by itself, exceeds the entire
wireless phone companies could install a
annual toll from skin cancer.
driving mode on phones, much like airplane
The only plausible cause is the texting,
mode, that would allow only directions, music
calling, watching and posting that people now and podcasts. It would turn on automatically
do while operating a large piece of machinery. in a moving car (and passengers could
Insurers understand that, as The Wall Street
override it). The companies’ refusal to do so
Journal reported, and are raising rates.
suggests that they take convenience more
The stories of individual deaths — and I
seriously than safety.
read many while reporting this column — are
Long term, technology can also take over
awful. They make you think of your family,
more driving duties, like automatic emergency
your friends and, guiltily, your own distracted
breaking. I realize “driverless cars” make
driving.
many people anxious. But automation has
Five-year-old Moriah Modisette was in
made airplanes vastly safer, and it will for
her parents’ Toyota Camry near Dallas when
cars, too.
a man driving an SUV, and using his iPhone,
Remember Calabresi’s lesson: Even
slammed into the Modisettes, killing Moriah.
before distracted driving, cars claimed a toll
Megan Goeltz, a pregnant mother of a
that would be shocking if it had not become
3-year-old girl, was in her Ford Fusion at
normal. Technology has now given us the
a stop sign in Minnesota when a distracted
choice between making a terrible problem
driver’s car flew over an embankment and
worse and saving a lot of young, healthy lives.
crushed her.
■
Joseph Tikalsky was getting the newspaper
David Leonhardt is an op-ed columnist for
out of his mailbox one morning. Ten-year-old
The New York Times.
We put up
with these costs
because we
imagine them
as unavoidable
human
imperfection.
YOUR VIEWS
People who don’t like Trump
can leave the country
This letter is in response to the ignorance
you published in the March 1 East Oregonian.
The letter stated our president is “a dictator.”
The author stated also that he is “the most
corrupt president in history.”
Americans have woken up. We have
elected a new leader who is for the American
people. We will become a greater America
because someone finally gave legal Americans
a voice again.
You don’t like what he’s doing, or what
he’s saying? The solution to your “problem” is
simple: Go back to where you came from and
let America be great again.
Andrea Zendejas
Umatilla