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3/13/2004
Associated Press
White House,
GOP forced to take new look at Canadian drugs
The Bush administration
and Republican congressional leaders are being forced to take
a hard new look at the idea of importing cheaper prescription
drugs from foreign countries as an election-year clamor grows
for removing prohibitions. WASHINGTON - Continuing increases
in prescription drug prices - the fastest growing item in
health care - and the pitched partisan battle over the new
Medicare law have given the topic greater prominence in Congress
and on the campaign trail. AARP, the 35-million-member seniors'
group that gave Republican-backed Medicare legislation a critical
endorsement last year, backs allowing imports. So do two Republican
senators, former GOP leader Trent Lott of Mississippi and
John Cornyn of Texas, both changing their position in recent
days. And so do nearly two-thirds of Americans, according
to a recent AP poll. Drug importation has become a proxy for
talking about the high cost of prescription drugs in the United
States. Spending on prescription drugs is the fastest-growing
component of health care costs, rising 15.3 percent in 2002.
Drug costs are expected to outstrip the overall growth in
health care spending for the next 10 years, and that projection
doesn't even take into account the new Medicare prescription
drug benefit that begins in 2006. Many economists believe
the change will lead to an additional increase in costs. ''We're
not talking about an academic situation. We're talking about
seniors who are going to bed tonight making the decision whether
to pay for prescription drugs or to eat,'' Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., an author of an importation bill, said at a hearing
this week. Click
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