4/26/04
Aberdeen News, South Dakota :
There may be light
at the end of the tunnel for those bogged down in a financial
mire by the high cost of prescription drugs.
Legislation is gathering
steam in Congress to allow the importation of cheaper drugs
from Canada and other countries. The legislation will also
get the government involved in enforcing safety measures that
opponents currently use to justify their stance against such
re-importation.
Both houses of Congress
have passed bills legalizing reimportation in the past, but
bickering - sometimes used as a convenient excuse to prevent
passage of legislation loved by voters but hated by lobbyists
- prevented a new law from being made. This year the pressure
is coming from the voters, not the lobbyists.
Ain't election years
grand?
If the bill, which
already has bi-partisan support in the Senate, is approved,
perhaps it will cause a domino effect that might lead drug
companies to rein in their spiralling costs that are crippling
many senior citizens financially. It is true that some of
those costs go toward research and development, as the drug
companies claim, but the industry's high profit margins and
lavish promotional campaigns contribute to the increases.
Canada, particularly,
has cheaper drugs because of price controls placed by the
government - a direction politicians in this country are loathe
to take. Still, a trip over the Canadian border can mean hundreds
of dollars in savings for Americans - who make the trip despite
the illegality of such ventures.
South Dakota spends
20 percent of its health benefits budget on drugs. That's
$10.5 million every year. It used to be just 5 percent. Earlier
this year the state was approached by a Canadian pharmacy
willing to provide drugs at a price that would have saved
the state millions of dollars.
The federal legislation,
sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, has other
attractive features and would limit what could be imported
and from where so that safety can be enforced.
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Here to read the entire article.
Affordable RX ® - "Your
Prescription for Savings" ™
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