From the legislative perspective.

Joining us with.

More on what measures Nevada lawmakers are considering in Carson City right.

Now is Tabitha mueller of the Nevada Independent and Tabitha.

You recently wrote about a bill that.

Would impact what Nevadans pay.

For prescription.

Drugs.

What would that do if passed?

Right.

So if passed, what this bill would do is it would take what?

So what this bill would do is that it would take, as part of President Joe Biden's inflation reduction act, there was a measure that said Medicare can now negotiate the price of prescription drugs for Medicare recipients.

This bill, what it says is it looks to build upon that and say that these drug price caps would apply statewide regardless of insurance.

So if it passes, the measure would go into effect in 2026 and make it so that any drug price negotiated by Medicare would be the drug price for all Nevada consumers.

What were some of the arguments for and against.

It that stood out to you?

So I think one of the arguments from, you know, lawmakers who are supporting this bill is saying, look, we're in a time where cost of living is rising.

Drug prices are incredibly high and often out of reach for most families.

However, on the other side, you had, you know, pharmaceutical companies saying that this would be basically pharmaceutical companies saying that these federally this is a federally made decision that we're now applying to the state level.

And it's sort of arbitrary.

They're also saying that it unfairly targets manufacturers of the drug and not other parts of the supply chain, like insurance companies or other organizations.

And the culinary Union.

Where did it.

Stand on this?

Right.

And so interestingly enough, the Culinary Union actually testified in opposition to the bill, saying that they weren't brought to the table when discussions were happening.

Now, lawmakers did include a include a carve out for unions that, you know, negotiate their own drug prices and set their own health care stuff.

But it was really interesting in that hearing where they said, look, we weren't brought to the table.

We are always supportive of lowering drug prices, but this is too soon, too quick.

And we need more time to discuss this.

All right.

And there were some other health care bills that were discussed.

Two of which.

Governor Joe Lombardo had prior said, I'm not going to support these, but lawmakers went ahead and heard them.

Anyway.

What does that indicate to you about this legislative session and the makeup of the body?

I mean, what you have to understand about this legislative session is that there's a Democratic majority in the Senate and a Democratic supermajority in the Assembly, and those lawmakers are not necessarily in lockstep with the governor.

And this shows some of the tensions that are happening between the governor's office and, you know, the assembly and Senate.

And I think one of what you need to keep in mind is the governor does have veto power unless bills are passed with two thirds of a majority out of both houses.

So I think that's something that we're going to have to keep watching.

Obviously, Lombardo said, hey, don't hear these bills, but lawmakers did hear them.

And so it'll be interesting to see whether they move forward in the process.

And I'm curious what those bills were that he.

Did not have support for.

So the first one is AB six, and that would basically establish into law an executive order that Sisolak Governor Steve Sisolak put in place, saying, Hey, we need to have a health care cost growth benchmark.

So we'd like to keep health care costs below a certain percentage year over year.

It's more of a goal than a set.

If we don't make this than people are going to be penalized.

The other one is AB 11, and that seeks to prohibit a hospital or psychiatric hospital from employing a full time doctor.

And basically a lot of doctors practice medicine as independent contractors for hospitals.

And this law, proponents say, would make it so that, you know, one hospital couldn't have a specialized care provider that other hospitals then wouldn't have access to.

And the bill that he may support, what.

Did that entail?

So that measure, basically that measure looks like it has support from members of the health care industry and from, you know, health care advocates as well.

And essentially, it would make it so that electronic records that were part of your health care, your electronic health care records could be shared easily between different doctors and medical groups with your consent.

And then one more bill relating to health care, assembly Bill one.

Oh eight Proponents say that it could help address the state's.

Nursing shortage.

How so?

So essentially, Nevada has roughly a three has a shortage.

We would need about 3000 new nurses, maybe a little bit more, depending on some estimates.

And what that bill says is that we would join a nurse licensure compact.

It's a little like a driver's license, right?

If you get a driver's license here in Nevada, you can drive in Connecticut, you can drive in Oregon.

But what this would say is that if you are a nurse and you have a licensure with this compact, you can operate in Nevada.

And I believe it's 37 other states that are also part of the compact.

Tabitha mueller of.

Nevada.

Oh, I'm sorry.

One more thing.

No, no, I was just going to say that proponents are saying this would allow the state to have access to more nurses and make it easier to become a nurse here in practice.

And as you mentioned.

There's quite the nursing shortage here in.

Addition to doctors.

Tabitha Mueller of the Nevada Independent.

Thank you so much for joining us.