“Plain English” prescription drug labeling bill passes out of Assembly Commerce and Labor
On the campaign trail, I heard from many seniors, and family members of seniors, who expressed concern about the complexity and cost of prescription drugs. In addition to supporting legislation to address the high cost of medications, I introduced a bill earlier this month to make medications less confusing.
AB 235 will allow a consumer to request from the doctor, at the time a prescription is written, that a “plain English” label be placed on the bottle by your pharmacist. Do you have a large number of prescriptions you need to keep track of that all have fancy-sounding names? Wouldn’t it be nice if you knew that one bottle was for “cholesterol” and another was for “blood pressure?” The labels would be up to you to request (there may be times when you don’t want a label) and would help you keep track of your different medications.
Having worked with doctors and retailers concerned about how this proposal would be implemented, the bill unanimously received an “amend and do pass” recommendation from the Assembly Commerce and Labor committee this afternoon. Thank you everyone for your hard work and support of this legislation.