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08/17/05
Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --
Two ballot propositions aimed to lower prescription drug costs, but do they go far enough?
Ivan Dryer>> I have borrowed about twenty-five thousand dollars in personal loans, another fifteen or twenty thousand that are owed for credit cards and several thousand in back medical bills.
Val Zavala>> And then, a rare glimpse into a place normally closed to outsiders. We preview the new Mormon Temple in Newport Beach.
It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.
Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
Val Zavala>> Get ready for a major battle over prescription drugs. Two competing initiatives, Propositions 78 and 79, are headed for the November ballot. One is supported by the pharmaceutical industry, the other by consumer groups. Sam Louie met one couple who spends a third of their income on drugs and medical care and they're watching the initiatives very carefully.
Sam Louie>> Ivan Dryer and his fifty-eight year old wife, Carol, of Van Nuys are desperately looking to get some relief from high prescription drug costs. Carol was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis sixteen years ago. She's now confined to a wheelchair and takes numerous medications.
Ivan Dryer>> She takes pills every day, about half a dozen, and then I give her a shot every Sunday. Her drugs are very, very expensive. Those two in particular, the ones that are injected, and then the one that fills the pump. They total about fourteen thousand dollars a year between them.
Sam Louie>> Ivan says he also takes medication for chronic fatigue syndrome and nerve pain after suffering a back injury many years ago.
Ivan Dryer>> And then it costs me a hundred seventy-two a month for my Medi-Cal prescriptions.
Sam Louie>> Even after their insurance, the Dryers end up spending six thousand dollars a year in prescription drugs. As a way to save money, Ivan resorts to skipping his medication now and then.
Ivan Dryer>> I take it every other day. A lot of people do that.
Sam Louie>> How does it affect you on the days when you're not on the medicine?
Ivan Dryer>> Usually there's enough in your system that there is a holdover so that you still coast a little bit, but the average is kind of lower, so you're not functioning quite as well as you would have.
Sam Louie>> To pay for the drugs, they say they've given up their old lifestyle of traveling and sightseeing and now live like hermits.
Ivan Dryer>> We don't eat as much as we used to. I generally find that, if I have to spend more than a dollar per person per meal, then it's too much, so I've become the king of all shoppers.
Carol Dryer>> Ivan always says we can't do that, we can't do this, so I said, well, just put at the bottom line that we can't do anything. We just can't do anything. Nothing is the order of business. Just doing nothing.
Sam Louie>> Despite the penny-pinching, they say they're in deep debt with creditors constantly hounding them.
Ivan Dryer>> In order to keep going here and keep ourselves going, I have borrowed about twenty-five thousand dollars in personal loans, another fifteen or twenty thousand that are owed for credit cards and several thousand in back medical bills.
Sam Louie>> But the Dryers could get some much-needed help. On the ballot this November are two propositions promising to lower prescription drug costs for millions of Californians, Proposition 78 and Proposition 79.
Matt Klink>> Proposition 78 which is a voluntary prescription drug program that will provide immediate assistance to approximately five million Californians who currently don't have insurance or who are under-insured.
Anthony Wright>> Proposition 79 uses a simple concept which is that the state of California should use its purchasing power to get the best price for Californians.
Sam Louie>> While both measures would offer Californians a prescription drug discount, there are differences in how many Californians would benefit. Proposition 78, backed by the pharmaceutical industry, would help five million Californians with drug discounts of up to forty percent. Proposition 79 is sponsored by consumer groups. It would help twice that many people, up to ten million Californians. So why are the numbers different? Because each measure has different qualifying income levels.
Under Proposition 78, the highest income you can earn and still qualify is fifty-six thousand per family. Proposition 79 allows middle-class families earning up to seventy-five thousand dollars to participate. There's another big difference. Proposition 78 would be voluntary for the drug companies. Proposition 79 would pressure drug companies to offer the discount. Anthony Wright is with Health Access California, which supports Proposition 79. He says, if drug companies don't offer the discount, then they could be excluded from the four billion dollar Medi-Cal program.
Anthony Wright>> We can use that to leverage better discounts by having the purchase power of the four billion dollars that we pay for drugs in the Medi-Cal program to try to negotiate saying that if the drug companies don't participate, they will lose business.
Sam Louie>> But Matt Klink, who is a spokesman for Proposition 78, says that using Medi-Cal, a program for the state's poor, is not a good way to encourage discounts.
Matt Klink>> What Proposition 79 supporters are doing is leveraging society's most needy, the poor, the disabled, the blind, etc., to try to get cheaper prescription drugs for people that already have prescription drug insurance in many cases.
Sam Louie>> And Klink says that voluntary programs do work. He points to a discount program that's been in place since January.
Matt Klink>> It's working in the state of Ohio right now. All of the pharmaceutical companies are participating in the program and discounts are running at thirty percent.
Sam Louie>> Klink says there's another reason to vote no on Proposition 79. There's a clause that allows people to sue drug companies for illegal profiteering.
Matt Klink>> It allows trial lawyers to pursue frivolous lawsuits because the measure throws around terms like unconscionable profits and unjust and unreasonable. Basically, it would allow trial lawyers to sue pharmaceutical manufacturers or pharmacists anytime a prescription is filled because of those terms that I just mentioned, but it doesn't define those terms.
Sam Louie>> Drug manufacturers are investing heavily in their version of the prescription drug plan. According to campaign finance reports, the pharmaceutical industry has contributed nearly forty-two million dollars in support of Proposition 78. By comparison, consumer advocacy groups have collected just ten million dollars for their cause.
Advertisement>> "Proposition 79 creates a big new government program. It lets bureaucrats decide what medications. . ."
Sam Louie>> Already in mid-August, the first TV ads by the drug industry are hitting the air waves.
Advertisement>> "For real help right now, it's Prop 78."
Anthony Wright>> The drug companies are trying to protect their ability to price-gouge Californians. They're going to flood the air waves with millions of dollars of advertising attacking Prop 79 because they see this as a national priority since they've been able to charge Americans so much more than people in other countries. At the end of the day, this is a David and Goliath fight, but we like to remember that David won.
Matt Klink>> We will spend whatever money it takes to communicate the message of why Prop 78 is real prescription drug reform and why it will provide benefits immediately.
Sam Louie>> As for the Dryers, even though they must watch every penny, there's a growing sense of optimism with the upcoming special election. They plan on voting for Proposition 79, since they're skeptical of the drug industry.
Carol Dryer>> I'm not sure that they're going to do anything because I used to be a nurse and I've seen that they don't do anything unless they're forced to.
Sam Louie>> It's estimated that Americans now spend over two hundred billion dollars a year on prescription drugs. Supporters of the two propositions see their form of legislation as a way to keep those costs in check and give Americans the price break they deserve. I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times.
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Val Zavala>> She was living the American dream, a beautiful family and a comfortable life in Beverly Hills, but nothing prepared Brenda Freiberg for what she would have to endure, the loss of not one, but two sons to AIDS, and that has taken her life in an entirely new direction. Brenda Freiberg lives in an elegant high-rise in Westwood. By all appearances, she has it made, a successful husband, her own career in communications, and a mother to three beautiful children. Then in 1986, everything changed.
Brenda Freiberg>> I've lost two sons to AIDS. My older son was diagnosed back in 1986.
Val Zavala>> Then a year later, her second son, Michael.
Brenda Freiberg>> My boys were diagnosed a year apart. They died almost five years apart.
Val Zavala>> Did you feel at that point too much for me to bear? Why me?
Brenda Freiberg>> I went through all of that and came to terms with I don't know why. I really did. I found some peace with it.
Val Zavala>> Just accepting that you don't know why.
Brenda Freiberg>> Just accepting, yeah, that there's something bigger, and through it all, the strangest thing is I gained faith.
Val Zavala>> Perhaps it was that something bigger that gave her the strength to take action.
Brenda Freiberg>> I got involved in all aspects. I got involved in treatment. I got involved in education. I got involved in direct services. I went to Washington a lot and lobbied. The first time we went to a march, it was not long after the diagnosis. It was at the Federal Building. I was terrified that my parents would see us on TV (laughter). There was this grown-up woman with grown-up children and I was just terrified (laughter).
Val Zavala>> But Brenda did more than march. This is Bombay, India, now renamed Mumbai. India, with more than five million people infected, is second only to South Africa in AIDS cases. And in India, the face of AIDS is much harsher. Through a series of events and contacts, Brenda made a trip to India. She met the doctor who in 1986 had documented India's first AIDS case, the same year her son was diagnosed. Now Brenda makes three or four trips to India each year. She works with the YRG Clinic in Chennai, India. Brenda remembers her first meeting with HIV-positive women.
Brenda Freiberg>> I walked in and there were about twenty around a large square conference table in their vivid colors and their eyes just full of pain and anxiety and hope, fear. Everything was written there and it was all I could do to keep from bursting into tears. These women were looking at me as though I were their savior and I wanted to just go away. You know, here my dream of trying to help women in great need was on the verge of becoming a reality and I just thought who am I to think, you know, that I can do anything like this or make a difference?
Val Zavala>> But she has. The YRG Clinic has teamed up with AIDS Project L.A. They've received major support from the MAC Aids Fund, MAC as in the makeup company. The clinic provides not just medicine, but support for families and all-important sex education.
Brenda Freiberg>> Well, usually it starts with the men. A lot of the men are truck drivers. They're out on the road for several months at a time. It is common for them to have sexual relations at the truck stops. They go home and they don't tell their wives and the wives, even if they're educated, have absolutely no ability to negotiate safe sex. The sex worker is very aware of AIDS, very aware of the significance of using condoms. Very difficult for them to do so because the men will say no and either they lose, you know, a client or they will earn less if they require them to wear the condom.
Val Zavala>> This report from Frontline/World interviewed sex workers and brothel owners in India.
[Film Clip]
Val Zavala>> And aren't the men afraid of contracting HIV?
Brenda Freiberg>> Some are afraid of contracting. The message is getting through, but they're turning then often to sex with young men who ride in the trucks with them. You know, there's denial that there's homosexuality. It's called MSM, men who have sex with men. That's how they refer to it. But it just gets spread. This denial is really dangerous. I've heard people say that, for women, one of the highest risks for HIV is being married.
Val Zavala>> But there has been progress, especially in Calcutta. Unlike Mumbai, aggressive education programs and a willingness to speak frankly has resulted in dramatically fewer AIDS cases in Calcutta.
Brenda Freiberg>> There have been some wonderful things in India, one of them unionizing the sex workers in Calcutta. I think some terrific things have come from that because they banded together and they all said, you know, no condom, no sex. I think that made a lot of difference. The same thing has not been done in Bombay, for example. I understand there are a hundred thousand sex workers.
Val Zavala>> The YRG Clinic in Chennai has treated between ten and twelve thousand patients, but the need worldwide is huge.
Brenda Freiberg>> Thirty million have died. Forty million are ill with this disease. I just read today that there may be as many as thirty nine million more dead in five to ten years. It is the largest thing that's happened to our world since the Plague and, you know, we all read in the books about the impact that had on the economy, on the cultures, on the society. That's what's happening here. Everyone knows somebody who's been affected by AIDS which means that we all realize that we're touched by it.
You know, we joke or talk about how we're global. We are. We really are. Our economies, our cultures, are beginning to be totally interwoven which means that we are tied some way or another to every other person. I know it sounds overblown, but I really believe it. Those poor mothers are no different from me. I guarantee you that their broken hearts and my broken heart are exactly the same.
Val Zavala>> If you'd like more information about the YRG Clinic in India, you can call AIDS Project L.A. or go to their website at apla.org.
To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address:
Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027
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Val Zavala>> It is a major event for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. A new temple has opened in Newport Beach, one of only six in California, and for a short time, non-Mormons are allowed to go inside. Orange County reporter, Roger Cooper, was among them.
Roger Cooper>> It has been the hottest ticket in town this summer. Every couple of minutes all day long, another bus pulls up at a remote parking lot on Bonita Canyon Drive in Newport Beach. Each quickly fills with people and pulls out for a destination half a mile away.
[Film Clip]
Roger Cooper>> Seven to eight thousand people a day have been showing up to go on this tour, so what on earth could be attracting all these people? It sits on a hillside overlooking central Orange County, a just-completed edifice crowned with a golden angel. It's from the church famous for its Tabernacle Choir and synonymous with Salt Lake City. It's the Newport Beach temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Vern Hancock is Temple Project Manager for the church.
Vern Hancock>> The angel is actually a fiberglass angel. It's golf leaf. It represents the Angel Moroni who visited Joseph and actually is trumpeting forth the Last Days, the coming of the Savior.
Roger Cooper>> The huge crowds are showing up to do something that can happen only once in the lifetime of the temple, go inside to take a tour. Once a temple like this is dedicated, non-Mormons are never again allowed inside.
>> "Please come forward."
Roger Cooper>> But for the six weeks leading up to the dedication, the temple has an open house allowing Mormons and non-Mormons alike to see the magnificent interior. During tours, shoes are covered to protect the new carpet.
>> "As we go into the temple, you'll see that the temple is really patterned after the temple that you read about in Kings, King Solomon's Temple. The first room we'll go into is the Baptistery."
Roger Cooper>> Although visitors are allowed inside now, our cameras were not, so we could only show you images of the interior provided by the church. In the Baptistery, a baptismal font is supported on the backs of twelve oxen representing the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Vern Hancock>> The function is the primary focus of the room and that is baptism. In this case, we call it Baptism for the Dead. It's a way of extending the gospel to those who have passed on.
Roger Cooper>> Vaughn and Juanee Baird are temple project missionaries from Salt Lake City. They've spent two years in Newport Beach watching over the construction.
Vaughn Baird>> The artwork that is in the murals in the first of the two instruction rooms is very impressive. It also represents Southern California, the coastline, and that's a magnificent feature.
Roger Cooper>> In the Celestial Room hangs a fourteen foot tall crystal chandelier with six thousand parts. Even among Mormons, only those who have reached a certain level in the church will attend ceremonies in the temple. Beyond the Celestial Room are sacred areas called the Sealing Rooms.
Vaughn Baird>> This is where the families are sealed together. This is where the linkage takes place. This is where we become an eternal unit.
Juanee Baird>> This is where families are sealed together for all eternity, so this is the highest ordinance that we have in our church and that is performed in the Sealing Rooms. It's a very sacred place.
Roger Cooper>> Construction on this hillside spanned two years and, although there are many Mormon meeting houses, there are only one hundred twenty-two temples worldwide. This Newport Beach temple is the sixth built in California.
Vaughn Baird>> San Diego, Redlands, Newport Beach, Los Angeles, Fresno, Oakland, and Sacramento is now under construction.
Roger Cooper>> Gale Mair has been the manager of temple construction. Only the highest levels of material and craftsmanship were accepted.
Gale Mair>> Probably one of the hardest things about building the temple was educating the subcontractors of the level of quality that's expected. As they bid the projects, they would look at an industry's standard as acceptable. We tried to educate them through our bid documents that there are several levels above industry standard that's required on these projects.
Vern Hancock>> We feel like the building should represent the highest standards of construction because we feel like this is the highest standard of living with the functions that go on inside.
Gale Mair>> When we have a painted piece of wood, you don't even see the joint, I mean, a hairline crack or anything. It's completely concealed.
Vern Hancock>> I can't give you a cost. That's something our church always keeps confidential.
Vaughn Baird>> The one thing I really like about the exterior is that it fits so well, color and design-wise, within the community and it looks to me like it belongs here. In fact, as I look at it today, it looks to me like it's been here. It fits into the community.
Roger Cooper>> Construction of a new temple is a major event for the thirty thousand Mormons who live in Orange County. No longer will they have to travel to Los Angeles or San Diego to temples. But why are non-Mormons not allowed inside after dedication?
Vern Hancock>> We feel very strongly about the sacred nature of what goes on inside. It's obviously not a secret thing because you've been through. We gave you pictures and photographs. We're taking a hundred fifty-plus thousand people through here over a period of six weeks, so the building itself, there's nothing secret. But to us, going in, making covenants, being in that very special place, binding ourselves together as families, that's very sacred and we don't want that to become commonplace.
>> "The temple has been built with the best quality materials. We would like to think that the temple is built to last for a long, long time. Looks like they're ready for us. Please come in."
[Film Clip]
Roger Cooper>> For non-Mormons attending the open house, the temple is a chance to learn about a different faith and perhaps dispels the misconceptions.
Vaughn Baird>> We're from Utah. We've not spent much time in Southern California, but we have thoroughly enjoyed being accepted here by local members of the church as well as the people in the area other than the members of the church and have felt very comfortable here.
[Film Clip]
Roger Cooper>> In Newport Beach, I'm Roger Cooper for Life and Times.
Val Zavala>> For more information on tours of the Newport Beach temple, you can go to their website at lds.org. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
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