Testimony

Believe it or not, I am normally a shy person. I always tend to get nervous during public speaking events. I remember my voice shaking a lot during the first class that I taught. That doesn't happen too much anymore, but the times when I have to address new audiences - like my peers at OSU or colleagues at NSF - my voice still shakes.

Well, today, my voice was shaky and I almost started crying when I reported that I was a breast cancer patient. I got through my testimony, though, and said that while I've been fortunate because I do have insurance, I also have a couple thousand dollars in medications and durable medical supplies at home that I won't use and would like to pass on to someone that doesn't.

During the hearing, one rep, apparently a Republican, stated that they should go ahead and approve the bill and get it out of committee already. Other committee members had stories to tell: the chair had had lymphoma and was left with $600 in drugs in his fridge; the vice-chair may have worked in a nursing home or some other care facility and he said that they would throw away bags full of unused medicines. He then commented, "why haven't we done something about this before?"

The Board of Pharmacy also testified and stated that they have talked about this issue before and that they are generally in support of the bill.

The republican rep had questions about implementation - about making sure that rural residents have access, too - but that part wasn't really discussed.

I think, in the end, that this bill was approved to go out of the Health Committee - it looks like it's going forward to the whole legislature for a vote.

How cool is that?