Godfrey wants to tackle prescription drug costs during 2020

By Scott Benjamin

DANBURY – The spiraling cost of prescription drugs and the lack of generic alternatives has created a crisis in Connecticut.

State Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury says he hopes that state agencies can help reduce costs by importing the prescriptions from Canada, where they are cheaper.

He said the cost of insulin has been “shooting through the roof.”

State Rep. Sean Scanlon (D- 98) of Guilford, the House chairman of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee of the General Assembly, has held roundtable discussions. CT Mirror reported that Scanlon found that there “are barriers to obtaining life-saving drugs.”

Scanlon also has indicated that there are too few of the less-expensive generic drugs on the market.

Godfrey said that state Comptroller Kevin Lembo (D-Guilford) is attempting to track the costs on the drugs.

Godfrey said the pharmaceutical companies have been “needlessly marking up” prices.

The state may try to utilize federal legislation to allow it to have its agencies buy the prescriptions from Canada, where they are less expensive, and sell them to residents at lower costs.

“We need to be able to negotiate prices,” said Godfrey.

CT Mirror reported that Vermont, Florida, Maine and Colorado already have state agencies that are reimporting the prescription drugs from Canada.

However, in 2003 the federal government approved a prescription drug package for non-hospitalized senior citizens that took effect in 2006 as part of the Medicare reform that former Republican President George W. Bush signed.

It was considered the biggest improvement of Medicare since former Democratic President Lyndon Johnson helped establish the program in 1965.

“That was only a step in the right direction,” Godfrey said in an interview about the prescription drug coverage for non-hospitalized senior citizens.

Proposals to lower costs were prime topics in some of the 2000 and 2002 congressional races.

After the Medicare reform package on prescriptions took effect, congressional Democrats campaigned in 2006 on allowing the federal government to negotiate the prices similar to the program offered by the Veterans Administration. Their plans have never been enacted.

On the local economy, Godfrey said Danbury has become two cites with the “prosperous” and the “asset limited,” noting that a 2018 United Way study indicated that 32,000 households in the Hat City – about held half of the city’s population - were slightly above the poverty line or some point below that measure.

Godfrey said Danbury will receive $72.844 million over the current and the next fiscal year combined in Education Cost Sharing funds, which is more than had been anticipated.

He said he believes in recent years that since there are so many suburban legislative districts in the Connecticut’s General Assembly, Danbury hasn’t received its fair share.

Godfrey said, “The lack of affordable housing” has been a “top three” issue on his constituent surveys for each of his 31 years in the state House.

During his 2018 campaign, Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) said there is an “incredible shortage” of affordable housing even though elected officials had praised former Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex) for increasing the number of affordable housing apartments in Connecticut.

Lamont told Patch.com then that he hoped to have more affordable housing in cities near mass transportation centers that those residents could easily commute to higher-paying jobs.

Additionally, for decades, state officials have lamented that there are not enough starter homes to accommodate young families.

Regarding state job growth, Godfrey believes that Connecticut has the talent to create more bio-tech research.

CTPharma, for example, is about to move from Portland to Rocky Hill and double its staff.

Godfrey contends that Connecticut’s biggest economic hurdle is that unlike a generation ago, companies are not as interested in building their headquarters in the suburbs. That was the formula, for example, that brought Union Carbide to Danbury and Boehringer-Ingelheim to Ridgefield and Danbury in the 1970s and early 1980s.

For example, the Boston Globe reported in 2016 that the Route 128 corridor near Boston, the 21st largest city in the United States, has helped turn Massachusetts into the kingpin of the New England economy.

Gary Rose, the chairman of the Government Department at Sacred Heart University and author of “Connecticut In Crisis,” has told Patch.com that college students are much more “urban oriented” than they were a generation ago.

Godfrey said that although Connecticut is the only New England state that hasn’t recaptured all of the jobs it lost in the 2008 recession, there are pockets of economic vitality.

Patch.com has reported that former independent gubernatorial candidate Oz Griebel of Hartford has lauded the city of New Haven and Yale University for forming a partnership that has made the Elm City more economically vibrant than it was 20 years ago.

Said Godfrey, “New Haven has developed a notable creative class.”

He also said “NBC Sports has made a big difference” in Stamford.

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-4) of Greenwich told Patch.com in 2018 that he is pleased that Stamford has developed a diverse economy after being more reliant on financial services which can go “bust and boom.” The Stamford skyline features such companies as Henkel, Pitney Bowes and Indeed.

Additionally, Patch.com has reported that former Major League Baseball manager Bobby Valentine, a Stamford native, said it has become one of the “best little cities” between Philadelphia and Boston because it has as many apartments downtown as the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn and Jersey City, N.J.

Godfrey also said that after four years, Jackson Laboratory For Genomic Medicine (Jackson Labs) in Farmington, the research company that arrived from Maine through a $291 million state grant, has proven to be “a good investment.”

He said as a result of long-term manufacturing contracts at the three major defense contractors – Lockheed Martin at Igor Sikorsky in Stratford, United Technologies Corporation at Francis Pratt and Amos Whitney in East Hartford and General Dynamics at Electric Boat in Groton - “Advanced manufacturing is making a comeback.”

Rose has told Patch.com that he believes much of the success in Connecticut’s economy will depend on the “Pentagon budget.”

Regarding the presidential campaign, Godfrey said there is no clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination and he is not ready to endorse a candidate.

However, he said former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is “The only one who has done a lot about gun responsibility,” Godfrey has made that one of his signature causes since taking office in 1989.

The country is currently in the longest economic expansion and the unemployment rate is the lowest it has been since 1969.

However, Godfrey exclaimed, “The federal deficit is frightening.” The Congressional Budget Office projects an additional $12 trillion of debt between 2020 and 2029.

Godfrey added, “That tax rates for billionaires are now lower than for the working class is frightening.”

University of California-Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman wrote in their 2019 book, “The Triumph Of Injustice” (W.W. Norton & Company, 232 Pages) that taxes for the wealthy are at their lowest rates since the 1920s.

On state issues, Godfrey said he doesn’t believe that Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) has enough votes to get his $19.4 billion commercial truck tolls program enacted during a January special session.

He said that, among other things, legislators are “not comfortable” that Lamont has frequently changed his proposals.

There are organizations both supporting and opposing the implementation of the gantries.

Godfrey said he fears for Democrats that, “Tolls could become a watershed issue” in the November election.

Godfrey is tied for the third longest tenure among current state House members. When he was elected in 1988, Ronald Reagan was still president, Bill O’Neill was governor and state Representative Steve Harding (R-107) of Brookfield, whose district includes a slice of Danbury, was one year of age.

Yet, it is not clear if Godfrey is the hottest Fordham University graduate that side (or even this side) of Denzel Washington.

Or Alan Alda.

Reportedly, Clayton Kershaw and Sandy Koufax would each tell you that he definitely is not the hottest Fordham graduate that side of Vin Scully.