Another Voice / Health care
Politicians note: Drug reimportation is waning
Updated: 08/04/08 6:37 AM
With campaign season heating up, more and more lawmakers, on both sides of the aisle, are promising to promote prescription drug reimportation if elected. Advocates claim that such action would drive down the nation’s escalating health care costs by reducing drug prices.
They’re wrong. Drug importation introduces major public health risks with minimal, if any, cost savings.
Consider the risk posed by imported meds. When Americans turn to Canada or Europe for drugs, it’s not always clear whether the medicine they receive is safe and genuine.
Indeed, the Food and Drug Administration has already busted numerous online pharmacies for claiming to be headquartered in Canada when they’re actually in China. And the World Health Organization estimates that half of all meds sold online are fake and, therefore, potentially dangerous.
By contrast, thanks to America’s robust regulation regime and guarded supply chains, 99 percent of the drugs sold in the United States are safe and real, according to the WHO.
What’s more, prescription drugs are cheaper and more easily available than ever before. Thanks to the Medicare drug benefit, more seniors have access to affordable medicine than ever before. This past year, the new benefit provided coverage to about 24 million seniors.
Because of increased competition, prices have dropped. Last year, Wal- Mart started selling generic drug prescriptions for $4 a month. It’s now also offering 90-day prescriptions for just $10. The program is estimated to have saved customers $1 billion.
In response to Wal-Mart’s move, competing drug stores and retailers slashed their own prices. At Publix, a major grocery store chain in the southeast United States, some generic prescriptions now are free.
This cost-cutting is showing up in government data. The Department of Labor recently reported that drug prices rose by just 1 percent in 2007. When inflation is taken into account, drug prices effectively declined.
In light of falling prices at home, regular consumers are voluntarily turning away from imported meds.
Prescription drug importation has actually declined over the past few years. According to a 2007 report from the Canadian International Pharmacy Association, Canada’s exported med sales shrank by half between 2004 and 2006 — from $1 billion Canadian to just $500 million.
Throughout the country, importation programs established by various states and cities have been shut down for lack of demand. Illinois, for example, saw just 3,689 residents use its importation program — or 0.02 percent of the state population.
Before lawmakers rush to open the American market to foreign pharmaceuticals, they should take note of what their constituents are already deciding for themselves — that imported drugs are not for them.
Joel White is a visiting senior fellow at the Galen Institute.
