Congress takes free-market view on cutting drug prices

Springfield, Mass., a city with a population about twice that of Youngstown, has saved $2 million in nine months by importing prescription drugs from Canada for its city employees and retirees.
With numbers like those, it is no surprise that the pharmaceutical industry and its lackeys in Congress are adamantly opposed to any measure that would encourage importation. Likewise, with numbers like those, it is not surprising that a bipartisan group of senators who obviously feel a higher allegiance to their constituents than to the pharmaceutical lobby have decided to push for importation.
On Wednesday, the senators introduced legislation designed to smooth the way for Americans to buy drugs from outside the United States.
"We're now well beyond the question of the necessity to allow for safe, regulated drug importation," said Sen Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, a sponsor of the new bill. "A drug can be safe and effective, but what good is it if you can't afford to take it? It is simply unconscionable that American consumers are subjected to price discrimination."
Growing trend
Individual Americans are increasingly buying imported drugs over the Internet. Groups of people, especially senior citizens, within a couple hundred miles of the border are making drug-buying bus trips to Canada. And an increasing number of cities are studying the Springfield, Mass., success story.
The pharmaceutical industry, some congressmen and the Bush administration are horrified at the prospect of wholesale importation of drugs to the United States.
The bipartisan legislation would immediately permit individuals to import up to a 90-day supply of a prescription drug from Canada for personal use, and allow Americans traveling to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland or any current member of the European Union to bring back a 90-day supply of medicine.
After the bill has been in effect for 90 days, it would allow drug importation by pharmacists and drug wholesalers from Canada and after one year from the current members of the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Switzerland.
A similar measure has passed the House, and if this bill is approved by the Senate, a conference committee would have to work out the differences.
Waiting game
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said the administration is awaiting a report on drug imports prepared by a government task force -- a requirement of last year's Medicare law. Duffy said greater use of generic drugs and Medicare prescription drug benefits in the new law will help control drug costs for older and disabled Americans. But the Medicare bill specifically prohibits the government from negotiating quantity discounts from pharmaceutical companies, so the likelihood of that bill producing Canada-like prices for the U.S. masses seems slim.
One would think that the administration would support a free market approach to bringing down the cost of drugs. Or is the administration saying that it is OK for jobs to go overseas for the sake of lower prices for durable goods, but that pharmaceutical company profits dare not be sacrificed in the name of affordable health care?