The state of California wants to make schools safer for kids dealing with asthma. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new program delivering free inhalers to public schools statewide.
While it’s billed as free, someone still must pay for it. In this case, taxpayers will. However, medical experts agree this can save young lives.
“It’s a good thing because asthma is a life-threatening condition,” said Dr. Peck Ong, pediatric allergist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
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Free inhalers
Newsom’s program will send two inhalers and 25 spacers, inhaler attachments that better disperse each dose of the albuterol, to each of the roughly 10,000 public schools across the state through CalRx.
“No child should be left gasping for air because their school doesn’t have an inhaler,” Newsom said. “This initiative lets us all breathe easier by equipping schools with the right tools to respond to potentially life-threatening asthma attacks.”
California has partnered with Amneal Pharmaceuticals for this program.
The schools will receive the products every year for the next three years, starting the week of Aug. 24.
“Having this resource to children is imperative, especially if kids are supposed to be bringing their own inhaler to school and they don’t have access to one because they forgot it, it’s expired, they didn’t get the paperwork from the physician or whatever,” Dr. Andrea Pappalardo Wlochowicz, allergy service director and associate professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, U.I. Health.
Private schools would need to purchase the products.
Each inhaler will be $9.50, which the governor’s office says is an 80% discount from the cash price. Each 25-pack of spacers will be $93.75, which his office says is a 35% savings.
Any school, public or private, can purchase refills at that same price.
This program comes after Newsom has also pushed through other similar programs.
Cost
Nothing is ever free.
So where is the money coming from for these products?
From California taxpayers, but the state said it’s getting a bulk discount.
Newsom said it’s part of the 2025-2026 state budget but did not specify exactly how much this would cost.
The contract with Amneal has not been made public.
The governor said this plan functions through CalRx, which is the state’s program to make lower-cost generic prescription drugs available by negotiating directly with manufacturers and then using the state’s purchasing power.
“There’s a negotiated rate of these supplies through CalRx and Amneal,” Pappalardo Wlochowicz said.
The main active ingredient in these inhalers is a drug called albuterol. It’s been around since the 1960s and was approved in the U.S. in 1982. It’s been available in generic form for years.
“It’s typically on the cheaper end, but it still can be expensive,” Ong said.
Even if the state spent $19 per school on inhalers and $93.75 on spacers for 10,000 public schools, it would come to about $1.2 million. That would be 0.0004% of the entire state budget.
But again, it’s unclear exactly how much the state is spending or if federal funding could offset the cost.
One way this program could also save the state money is on hospital visits.
“When you think about the average cost, which is $7,000 to go to the emergency room and be seen, that’s a savings there,” Pappalardo Wlochowicz said. “Now, not to say that every child that received this inhaler would have gone to the emergency room, but a lot of times that’s the only recourse for people to do if a child is short of breath in front of them and they don’t have anything to give them.”
Asthma problems
Asthma is a major issue for children in California, with one million kids dealing with the condition. One in three have active symptoms, which can cause them to miss up to a week of school each year.
“The reality is that asthma is a very common disease,” Pappalardo Wlochowicz said. “A lot of people have it. A lot of it’s uncontrolled. Basically, asthma can be controlled if it’s addressed right away.”
When it comes to administering this drug to students, the Newsom administration has partnered with the California School Nurses Organization to provide training guidelines to public school districts at no cost.
That training will include recognizing symptoms, protocols for use of the albuterol and more. When asked if there’s any concern over liability of school employees administering a drug to a student, both experts Straight Arrow spoke with said they’re not too worried about that.
“I don’t see any problem or liability because if these patients are not treated, their life may be threatened,” Ong said.
There’s a similar program in Illinois called Rescue, which essentially did the same thing California is doing.
Pappalardo Wlochowicz said her home state did a legal analysis on potential liability for this program.
“It showed that the immunity from liability of the school district, the person who administered it, and the person who prescribed it was pretty airtight, unless you were to do so negligently,” she said.
The same applies to California law.
While experts laud this program and believe it will help students, they say there’s more to do when it comes to asthma’s impact on children in America.
Asthma attacks don’t just happen at school.
“These episodes can happen anywhere, not just school settings,” Ong said. “I think the next step that’s important is to address this condition, meaning how to control the problem and why is this kid not diagnosed earlier.”
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