SB 1096 Defeated: Good Riddance

Just a quick follow-up post to note that SB 1096, the obnoxious bill that I mentioned the other day and that would have basically sold out patient privacy rights to pharmaceutical companies, has been killed.

More coverage, from the LA Times, is here, at least until the link goes dead. The most important sentence in reporter David Lazarus' article is the last one, which notes the contributions from drug companies to bill author Senator Ron Calderon: "Calderon has received at least $89,000 in contributions from drug companies and pharmacy chains since 2002."

Calderon blamed the defeat of his bill on "a deceptive campaign of misinformation," according to Lazarus. A more reasonable interpretation of what happened is that people got wise to the fact that this bill was a shameless attempt to give away basic privacy protections.