Most Americans support reimportation Posted by Liz at 10/30/06 11:14 AM

Just saw this study today...Millions of Americans buy their drugs from Canada, even though it is illegal. Canadian drugs can cost 40-60 % less than the same medications here, as their prices are usually kept in line by government negotiation or policy.

comments (22)

1 Posted by Dennis at 11/01/06 11:03 AM

The term "reimportation" is misleading. Many of our drugs are manufactured in countries with lower costs, such as Ireland, etc. These drugs are not being "reimported". Also I understand that many drugs manufactured in foreign countries do not undergo strict inspections by our drug companies before they are imported.

2 Posted by christine at 11/01/06 11:41 AM

well, can anyone blame us commoners for wanting to save a little money? i am so tired of the drug companies telling us how much research costs. how about the drug companies stop spending so much on marketing and actually use that money for research. hey, there's a novel idea. it might even save some money. or they could price their drugs so everyone could afford them and not have to give free drugs to the poor and rely on drs. to give out tons of free samples to those that cannot afford. just my 2 cents.

3 Posted by John at 11/01/06 12:32 PM

I did buy my drugs from Canada for 3 years. Now it is cheaper for me to use Medicare RX. But, I worry more about fake drugs here in the US than in Canada. Here I get all my drugs in a yellow bottle, from who knows where. In Canada, they came in a bottle sealed directly from the manufacturer.

4 Posted by DZ at 11/01/06 12:36 PM

I'm tired of drug companies and insurance companies trying to stick it to the people. They are now trying to put stand alone pharmacies out of business (by making consumers send away their prescriptions to get a 3 month supply from an "acceptable" pharmacy.) This is forcing us to buy from their "buddies." It's all about greed and money and not about people being able to afford prescriptions. The way is stands now, you can buy your prescription for 3 months at your regular pharmacy. After the 3 months, if you do not send your prescriptions away, then you are charged $40 instead of your prescription co-pay, which could be $10-$20. This forces you to use whoever your insurance approves. It all goes into the deep pockets of insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Enough is enough.

5 Posted by Beverly Jacobson at 11/01/06 12:41 PM

Read Marcia Angell's book, The Truth About the Drug Companies to find out just how bad they are. They spend 3x as much on promotion as research. They falsify or supress results on clinical trials they run when those results don't support the drug they want to sell. We not only need to get drugs from Canada and other countries where they are cheaper LEGALLY, we need to change the laws so that an independent agency is established at the NIH to run the trials on new drugs before the FDA approves them.

6 Posted by Harvey Phillips at 11/01/06 01:13 PM

Sticker Shock....

I had worked for the County and had a drug prescription plan. Rarely did I pay more than $15 for any drug.

And then I retired and there went my prescription plan. The first time I bought my Lamictal at the local drug store I couldn't believe the cost, almost $1300 . From that time on I then bought my Lamictal, generic, through Canada at a cost anywhere from $400 to $600.

Now comes Medicare Rx with the pressure to join or risk the consequences of penalty charges. I joined and now pay a monthly premium deducted from my SS. Still I resisted buying my drugs stateside, especially since the Lamictal was not available as a generic. But it nagged at me that it wouldn’t take long to satisfy the deductible and so maybe It wouldn’t cost that much to use the Medicare Rx plan.

Thus far, I’ve only used the Rx service one time so I don’t know whether I’ve made a savings or not, especially when I factor in the premium and the deductible. It is a bit tricky trying to compare prices. I could get the Canadian drug as a generic and I could get a 90-day supply. Stateside, I can only get the brand name and a 30-day supply. And I’ll have to factor in as well that I’ll once again have to satisfy the deductible for the New Year.

I’ve really been spoiled by that nice drug prescription plan I had when I worked for the County. Maybe I should go back to work!

7 Posted by Nora at 11/01/06 01:35 PM

When this country uses the excuse that drugs are unsafe when they come from other countries, this really annoys me. Most drugs that come from Canada are manufactured by the same companies that we use. Now I've heard that drugs from Canada are being confisicated by Homeland Security and folks like you and I are plain out of luck. Something needs to be done.

8 Posted by S Weitzmon at 11/01/06 01:58 PM

Part D is a wolf in faux sheeps clothing , this is pay-back to the
Drug mfg's for their support of the administration , As evidenced
in campaign disclosures , we have a congress that is beholding to
the Drug & Insurance Industries .

To change this YOU MUST VOTE your beliefs , If you don't vote ,
DON'T COMPLAIN

9 Posted by David Voigt at 11/01/06 02:16 PM

The VA buys "foreign" made drugs. Several of my prescriptions (brand name drugs such as Zocor)are made in England. If the VA can negotiate with manufacturers, why won't the government allow price negotiations by other branches.

10 Posted by Dr. E at 11/01/06 02:45 PM

The "foreign"/"American" issue is a myth! All first world countries have excellent medical care, except the USA, which has excellent medical care only for the rich.

With minor exceptions, we use the same medicines here as they do in, say, Sweden, or Britain. If you buy Zocor here or in Germany, you will get the same pill, made the same way, by the same company; you will just pay more for it here.

The FDA is a little more conservative with allowing new drugs on the market than the European countries, and there have been notable times where this has saved us from disasters like thalidomide, which caused birth defects in the early 60's, but we have also paid for this by not having many new treatments as quickly as possible. European countries (and Canada, Australia, etc) negotiate prices that allow fair profits for the drug companies. They have only one country left in the world where they can gouge consumers - the USA!

As a physician I have seen all sides of this issue. I have seen poor patients, and poor medical students who have worked hard to get an education, which takes longer than any other career I know. To put it simply, we need national health insurance, or a national health plan just like the rest of the industrialized world, where everyone gets good care, not just cheap drugs, and the cost is born by all.

11 Posted by Jean Cerier at 11/01/06 02:58 PM

I buy my drugs under an insurance plan (Medicare D) and in a very short time I will reach the donut hole but will still have to pay the monthly fee to the insurance co. which I very much resent. I intend to buy my drugs from Canada once I have reached the donut hole. I feel legislators MUST allow negotiation with pharmacies to lower the cost of drugs for seniors and medicaid recipients.

12 Posted by William Welsch at 11/01/06 03:08 PM

Many of the drugs sold in Canada are manufactured in the U.S. If Canada can purchase and sell these drugs in Canada cheaper than Americans can buy them in this country, this amounts to "dumping." Not much different than Lee Iococca's complaint that Japan was selling their cars cheaper and U.S. and whined for and recieved a government bail out. If so much money wasn't being syphoned off via campaign donations, with over 90% going to Republicans, drug companies could afford to sell these drugs much cheaper. This is and adminstration that pushes for "Globalization" except when it comes to importation of drug. To say the government can not negotiate drug prices is a politcal act that is purchased via campaign donations.

13 Posted by Marie at 11/01/06 03:16 PM

Does anyone really believe that the crackdown against buying drugs from Canada is driven by anything other than corporate greed? The drugs are the same ones we pay more for in the US. Medicare Part D rules and regs were written by the industries which profit from it, so it is no surprise that I will pay more this year for the same medications using Medicare Part D than I did last year without any prescription insurance.

14 Posted by Pete Sikora at 11/01/06 03:28 PM

That Medicare can't negotiate to get the lowest prices possible for seniors and taxpayers is indeed a scandal. Check out this report that CU released. http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_health_care/003803.html
It shows that the lowest retail price for 6 big drugs beat most Part D plan "donut hole" prices. That's a sorry showing for Medicare's private Rx drug plans. Only private plans are allowed under the current law. It's time for a medicare-run Part D with the power to negotiate as an option for medicare beneficiaries!

15 Posted by Ed at 11/01/06 03:36 PM

The cutoff point before you go into the doughnut hole in Medicare Part D is $2,250. This includes both your copays and what Medicare pays the drug cos. for the drugs. As many have commented, there should be a buying agent for the govt. more efficiently Medicare directly or some agency such as GAO. Also, there exist vastly different formularies among the part D providers. Just as Medicare A and B supplements all offered the same plans and coverages to those eligible with different monthly premiums, there should be more uniformity as to drugs covered and the tiers they fall into.

16 Posted by Kent P. at 11/01/06 06:27 PM

If a drug was manufactured and sealed in the United States, and the seal remains unbroken, I don't care what language the labeling is in, or how many countries the medication transited through. Any person or pharmacist should be able to re-import that medication at a more advantageous price than the manufacturer sells it directly to U.S. Pharmacies, Pharmacy Chains, and Pharmacy Co-ops.

Quite simply we need to be permitted to re-import medications until such time as the manufacturers spread their research costs evenly accross all Advanced Industrialized Democracies. While I wish we had national or regional health insurance of a single payer variety like Canada and Europe, we don't yet and may never. However, it is unacceptable for the large buyers or public funders of Prescription Medications in those single payer countries to be able to exert so much price pressure on the Pharmaceutical Companies that our peers in the Advanced Industrialized Democracies aren't paying anything, or anywhere near their fair share of the research costs when they buy prescription medications, we as the U.S. should just re-import as a protest until the manufacturer's accept that the 300 million Americans will only pay their fair share of the cost of developing new drugs. We won't pay any portion Japan's, Europe's or Canada's share let alone pay it all!

17 Posted by Fred at 11/01/06 07:02 PM

I would suggest that the profits made by Big Pharma are absolutely obscene! We should use all means available to get inspected drugs from any source we can. It is unlikely that the Congress will help since they are so subsidized by the Pharmaceutical companies, their votes are bought and paid for. We are in a box and need to do what we can. The best thing would be to vote these idiots out of office and put in a new crop with campaign regulations that have teeth and no loopholes...and then I'll psychically transport myself to Hawaii! That will be the day. Folks, we cannot trust our own government; it is corrupt to the core.

18 Posted by Paul Trifone at 11/01/06 09:16 PM

Why do those whom we elect to represent us not see the hypocracy of their ways? They tell us that we have this wonderful Medicare Prescription Drug Program that benefits many of our elderly, but don't tell us that what they've created is another program that like Social Security and Medicare will be bleeding red within five years and will thus be too costly for the government to continue to subsidize.

They don't tell us that the drug companies continue to increase the costs of drugs that have already been developed, approved and are currently being sold. In fact the GAO has indicated that some drugs have increased by up to 200% in just the past two years.

They don't tell us that the government supplements the cost that seniors are paying to the insurance companies for the Medicare Part D premiums up to $140 per month per participant and that by estimates of GAO and Medicare actuaries, the cost of this program will be a lot more than the $480 billion cost that the President has indicated, in fact more in the range of over $800 billion. As the government withdraws its susidies of the Medicare Part D premiums, the insurance companies will pass on the higher premium costs to the seniors. Seniors will then have to deal with double digit increases in both Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D premiums. Even with COLA adjustments of 3% per year on their Social Security benefits, seniors relying on Social Security as their sole source of income will not be able to keep up with the soaring costs of Part B and Part D premiums as well as the other increases in the cost of living that we all face each year.

The idea of providing a Prescription Drug Program for seniors is a great idea, but why did they have to make this so complicated. The fact that each insurance company has their own drug formulary, and that these formularies can and will change from year to year, and that drugs can and will be dropped from an insurer's formulary, and that drug costs will increase annually (see above) requires seniors to review the many different Medicare Part D Plans available to them each year. This is necessary in order to ensure that the prescription drugs that the seniors need are in fact going to be provided by the insurer who provides the senior with his/her Medicare Part D Program benefits. If the seniors don't shop each year, they may find that they will be paying premiums for a Medicare Part D Plan that will not provide them with all of the prescription drugs that they need.

The Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program was supposed to help the low income seniors who cannot afford the cost of their prescription drugs, yet many of these same seniors cannot navigate through this very complicated program on their own. If there is no one to assist them, some of these neediest seniors may, as a result, end up with no Part D plan and thus be subject to the 1% monthly premium penalty for each month that they do not participate in a Medicare Part D Plan.

Why can't they let Medicare negotiate discounts with the drug companies for 45 million Medicare beneficiaries in the same fashion as the Veterans Adminsistration? We could be seeing discounts of up to 40% to 50%. Then we can put together a Medicare Prescription Drug program after these discount prices are in place using just one formulary developed and maintained by Medicare for all insurers to use. Competition among the insurers can be maintained by encouraging them to reduce their administrative costs. The new Medicare Prescription Drug Program should also allow seniors to purchase drugs at Costco and Walmart which are charging much less for generic drugs than most of the chain pharmacies.

We can and must do better!

19 Posted by B. L. Rushing at 11/05/06 08:01 PM

Just keep your courage and do NOT fall into AARP's trap.....my goodness they were so suckered into the donut hole plan and now they, after losing so many wise members are crawling back! Too late! You just keep doing the right thing and I'll subscribe!

20 Posted by Joan at 06/05/07 02:01 PM

I agree with every thing that has been said. I am so upset with the price of medication.