Cheap prescription drugs creating new brand of US tourist in Canada, Mexico
Milan Korcok
Milan Korcok is a Canadian journalist based in Florida.
By the busload, thousands of American seniors are crossing over into Canada and Mexico to stock up on the one valuable commodity they can't seem to find at home - affordable prescription drugs.
Armed with sturdy American greenbacks and lured by price differentials that save some of them thousands of dollars a year, the list of treks being made by these day trippers is growing: from Maine to Quebec and New Brunswick, from the state of Washington to Calgary or Vancouver, from Arizona, Texas and California to Mexico.
According to US Senator Slade Gorton of Washington, the stomach acid medication omeprazole costs US$129 for a 30-pill order in his state, but only US$53 in Canada. The antihyperglycemic agent metformin costs $52 in the US, but only $12 in Canada, while conjugated estrogens cost $26 in Washington and $7 in Calgary. Overall, the survey found that for the 10 most commonly prescribed drugs, average prices were 64% lower in Canada than in Washington state. (All prices provided are in US dollars and are based on the lowest dosage available for each drug.) To American seniors, many of whom have health plans (including Medicare) that do not cover prescription drugs, these savings could make a huge difference.
The plight of these pharmaceutical nomads has clearly inflamed the passions of federal and state politicians during this election season, particularly because the issue of expanding prescription drug benefits to 38 million Medicare beneficiaries and 44 million uninsured Americans has zoomed to the top of the political agenda. Everybody, it seems, is looking for a solution to the high cost of prescription drugs. But forcing seniors to hop the border to Canada or Mexico to fill shopping bags with drugs, many of which were manufactured in the US, is not a politically appealing one.
Industry representatives generally attribute lower drug prices in foreign countries to consumer drug price controls, such as those provided by Canada's Patented Medicines Prices Review Board. Drug manufacturers and their US wholesalers have to sell at a great discount if they want to make their products available abroad. Even in the US, large bulk buyers of drugs like HMOs, insurance companies and the Veterans Administration get huge discounts for their volume purchases. However, the folks who buy retail are out of luck.
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/162/13/1869
Milan Korcok
Milan Korcok is a Canadian journalist based in Florida.
By the busload, thousands of American seniors are crossing over into Canada and Mexico to stock up on the one valuable commodity they can't seem to find at home - affordable prescription drugs.
Armed with sturdy American greenbacks and lured by price differentials that save some of them thousands of dollars a year, the list of treks being made by these day trippers is growing: from Maine to Quebec and New Brunswick, from the state of Washington to Calgary or Vancouver, from Arizona, Texas and California to Mexico.
According to US Senator Slade Gorton of Washington, the stomach acid medication omeprazole costs US$129 for a 30-pill order in his state, but only US$53 in Canada. The antihyperglycemic agent metformin costs $52 in the US, but only $12 in Canada, while conjugated estrogens cost $26 in Washington and $7 in Calgary. Overall, the survey found that for the 10 most commonly prescribed drugs, average prices were 64% lower in Canada than in Washington state. (All prices provided are in US dollars and are based on the lowest dosage available for each drug.) To American seniors, many of whom have health plans (including Medicare) that do not cover prescription drugs, these savings could make a huge difference.
The plight of these pharmaceutical nomads has clearly inflamed the passions of federal and state politicians during this election season, particularly because the issue of expanding prescription drug benefits to 38 million Medicare beneficiaries and 44 million uninsured Americans has zoomed to the top of the political agenda. Everybody, it seems, is looking for a solution to the high cost of prescription drugs. But forcing seniors to hop the border to Canada or Mexico to fill shopping bags with drugs, many of which were manufactured in the US, is not a politically appealing one.
Industry representatives generally attribute lower drug prices in foreign countries to consumer drug price controls, such as those provided by Canada's Patented Medicines Prices Review Board. Drug manufacturers and their US wholesalers have to sell at a great discount if they want to make their products available abroad. Even in the US, large bulk buyers of drugs like HMOs, insurance companies and the Veterans Administration get huge discounts for their volume purchases. However, the folks who buy retail are out of luck.
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/162/13/1869
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