The Wrong Approach to Drug Prices
From CNN:
- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Leading senators Wednesday unveiled a bipartisan bill that would let Americans import cheaper U.S.-approved prescription drugs from abroad.
Individuals would be able to buy 90-day supplies of medicines for personal use from qualified Canadian pharmacies. Larger commercial shipments to wholesalers or pharmacies would be limited to Canada for the first year and then expand to approved industrialized nations, including European Union members, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Switzerland.
"We pay here in the United States the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world. That's not fair," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat.
I've been doing a fair amount of research into the issue of drug prices and our policies here vs. those abroad, and I have to say that this is a bone-headed way to approach the problem for anything more than a very short term bandaid.
Buying from Canada has led to the Canadian health care system beset by higher pricing, borne by their own citizens to support our schizophrenic health care system. We need to address this head-on, and directly, and resolve it for more than a month or two.
We call ourselves the best and the brightest, right? So why do we have to hang off other countries' prescription coat tails? We don't!
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