March 19, 2024

The Bitter Pill

Jan. 24, 2007
Ever wonder why prescription drugs cost so much in America when they’re so much cheaper in countries such as Canada?
Do you have prescription drug costs ranging into the thousands of dollars each year? Are you elderly and living on a limited income? Do you have to choose between buying the drugs that will save your life or paying for food and heat?
Well, tough beans. Because according to conservative pundits, you are nothing more than a “greedy granny,” trying to get Uncle Sam or his Canadian counterpart to lend a hand when you should be paying through the nose like everyone else.
Currently, the Democrats have a proposal that would allow the federal government to deal directly with drug companies to negotiate lower prices for people on Medicare.
Sounds like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? People over the age of 65 who are on Medicare generally have less money to spend. Why not let Uncle Sam go to bat for them to get a better deal on prescription drugs?
As the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) notes: “Medicare has 43 million members. And zero bargaining power when it comes to prescription drug prices.”
But Republicans oppose allowing the government to haggle over drug prices for Medicare patients, making the rather lame claim that pharmaceutical companies will limit the choice of drugs they will make available to seniors in the program. Apparently, the fact that a company might refuse to lower its prices on certain drugs is considered a good reason to scuttle the whole idea.
Then there’s the Canada option. It is no longer illegal to purchase cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. But, as noted by Mike Gehrke of SenateMajority.com, U.S. Customs officials have begun seizing prescriptions from senior citizens at the Canadian border on orders from the Bush administration.
“Congress legalized importation of prescription drugs from Canada in the new Medicare prescription drug law, but also allowed numerous loopholes for the Administration to place bureaucratic roadblocks in the way of seniors and others simply seeking relief from profit-hungry drug companies,” Gehrke wrote in a July, 2006 article entitled, “Majority of Republicans Oppose Cheaper Prescription Drugs.”
“The Bush Administration has used these (loopholes) to the broadest extent possible to block importation by individuals, including the latest efforts to literally take drugs away from people crossing the border, even if they hold valid prescriptions for otherwise safe drugs,” Gehrke says.
In early July, he notes that 32 Senators -- all Republicans -- voted against a measure that would keep U.S. Customs officials from shaking down grandma and gramps for their legal prescriptions at
the border.
But why would Republicans deny seniors -- and any American for that matter -- the right to buy cheaper drugs in Canada? After all, isn’t that the invisible hand of the free market and capitalism at work?
Well, here’s the kicker. When asked this question in the debates of the last election, President Bush said that Americans shouldn‘t be allowed to buy drugs from other countries because he was worried about our “safety.”
Like those Canadians might sneak some LSD into your Viagra, eh?
Critics suspect there‘s another reason that Republicans have labored to restrict fair trade, like the fact that the pharmaceutical companies made nearly $60 million in contributions to Republican candidates and their party committees since 2000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
So, is it your safety that the Republican Party is worried about, or keeping the gravy train of contributions flowing from the major pharmaceutical companies?

BUYING CANADIAN
Many of the drugs that Americans are buying from Canada were made in the U.S. and are simply being reimported -- at a lower cost.
The claim from Canadian companies on the Internet is that they can save you anywhere from 70-90% on your prescription drug costs. Is that true? Let’s take a case history. Me, for instance.
I take 10mg of Lipitor each day to control high cholesterol. A typical 30-day supply bought at a pharmacy in Northern Michigan runs $70-$75. A Canadian online pharmacy offers the same supply for $65. That’s not much of a savings.
But, if I purchase the pills in bulk, the price comes way down. A full year’s supply of Lipitor from the same Canadian company would run me $468, compared to $840 here in the U.S. That’s a savings of $372 per year. It adds up.
Of course, my health insurance company puts stumbling blocks in the way of me buying Canadian, by limiting the
number of pills I can buy each month. Result: it costs both them and me more money. Go figure.
But are Canadian prescription drugs safe? You can make them so by dealing with members of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA), “formed in 2002 to represent licensed Canadian pharmacies that sell prescription drugs to Americans by mail order and meet its safety, service and ethical standards.”
About 40 CIPA pharmacies are found on the Internet. Also of note, the AARP is able to provide a safety checklist when buying online and recommends a site called PharmacyChecker.com to make sure the company you’re dealing with is legit.
This is huge problem for every generation. As noted in Mark Waggener’s recent article in the Northern Express entitled, “The New Drug Lords,” the pharmaceutical companies make some of the highest profits in the business world: 24%. Fine, but should high profits on human misery be protected by our own Congress and President at the behest of drug company lobbyists? Why should we stand for Republicans protecting the profits of the drug companies when their party claims to be champions of free market principles?
It‘s time to let greater competition from Canada, and for Medicare bring the price of drugs down.

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