Allowing US patients to purchase Canadian medications

[judi]

I have a question, if this is not an acceptable topic moderators can feel free to delete it. 

A bill was recently introduced in our Congress to allow people here to import meds from Canada, it failed and many people here are angry and attacking the senators who voted against it, I'm reserving judgement because I don't feel I know all of the facts.

I would like to know  first, if anyone knows if Canada has an 'official' opinion of this and secondly, how you guys feel personally.  My feeling is that people here are fighting about it without knowing Canada's opinion, I have heard that in the past Canadian officials were against the idea because of fear it would drive up prices for Canadian citizens and I would think that would be a real concern for your country.

Any input appreciated. I hope you are all staying warm, its cold here in Washington (as all of you further north laugh uproariously 

[justacaregiver]

This is something that has always baffled me too. IF, the medicines are the same as what the FDA approves for us here, I wouldn't have a problem. I wonder how the insurance companies would handle it though. I know that they want you to stay within their network and if you choose not to, your costs will be higher. I know that some states have some sort of assistance plan that is income based and is available PROVIDED that you purchase the medicines from a pharmacy in that state.

I can't get my mind around the costs going up. As you make more of something, you purchase more ingredients, more packaging and you negotiate a more cost effective price from your suppliers. If selling their product to more people would raise production costs, someone is doing something wrong. Anything that is used for medical purposes always tends to cost more for some reason though. Take the "Flutter" P.E.P. Device; a plastic piece with 3 parts and a steel ball. In production, this thing just can't cost more than thirty cents to make. The very first one that popped up on a search was seventy one bucks.

It sure seems like I responded to your post with a two paragraph answer and didn't really say a thing.

 

[gerald]

There has been a concern about the increase demand resulting in a shortage of prescription
medicine available to meet  Canadian Demand.  Part of that is the concern about the
manufacturing facilities being able to handle the increase and they were not sized for massive growth. 

The prices are very much influenced by the medical system dictating what is allowed and how
much they will pay and the force to use generics as soon as possible.

There has been talk around opening the border for years but I believe it has always
come down to the Pharmicuitical companies being able to lobby to keep it closed and
keep the prices high.   There may be some concern about the differing approvals
for drugs and how they deal with that.

Opening the border would cause a shortage for a while. But I suspect the almost immediate
affect would be a leveling of prices.

[gerald]

One thing that puzzles me is how many over the counter medications are so much
cheaper in the US than they are in Canada.  We also used to be much cheaper on
those now it has completely switched!!

I suspect it is because the Government medical does not cover over the counter
medications so it does not force the price down.

[justacaregiver]

Very true Gerald, Here, when it's not in the insurance companies formulary, it's open season on the consumer.

[joany]

I'm with you, jusacaregive - totally baffled.  I've convinced myself that the "organizations, governments, people, etc" responsible have never been sick and will never be sick because there's absolutely no relationship to realty when it comes to pricing, availability, need i.e. we're all faking it.

So discouraging as a member of the human race.

[judi]

Thank you everyone who commented, I am clueless as well. My opinion of the med issue is that they need to force manufacturers to lower the price here rather than potentially complicate life for Canadians and having half the savings be lost by fees going to whoever imports it, someone would figure out how to make money off the idea somehow

They not only soak us here but the price seems to vary depending on what insurance you have, if it it will pay a lot the price is seems higher but am not sure how that works.   You may know a lot of people here get inhalers from India, in some cases they are also made by the same manufacturer and cost a pittance. 

I suspect at this time some of our lawmakers voted against allowing the import because it might make it easier for the other party to justify snatching away insurance from lower income people but that is just my idea.

The world of business doesn't care much about the rest of us, for awhile a chain supermarket here had broccoli that was grown in Mexico and shipped to Canada for processing to return and be sold in the US.  Rant!  

[justacaregiver]

It works like this Judi, people will do what it takes to get the most for their money and if that means getting their MDI from India, then they'll plan ahead so they don't run out. They expect the longer lead time to get their medicine and can always run to their local store if they start running too low on what they already have. I fully understand this and I've looked into it too.

Some forty years ago, we did all this to ourselves. We decided that we didn't want to be in the manufacturing business here anymore. We knew the lion's share of the profits came from manufacturing but we figured that if we imported product, we could cut the work force, cut the warehouse space and so on.

We wanted to be a "service" country. Now, there's good money in service but think about what REALLY happened. We buy a microwave at Walmart that was made elsewhere. Sooner or later, something goes wrong with the microwave and we take it in for service. They tell you that it'll cost $80.00 to fix. You then go back to Walmart and see a shiny new one for $100.00. What do you  think most people will do?  Yep,  you guessed it, and now we're out of the service business too.

The big story on the news last year was the Epi pen. This is pretty serious too  because if you need it, you need it.... Just like the medicines prescribed to people here to breathe. Another company bought the rights and charged the end user a pretty hefty price. 

I remember many times sitting in the Doctors waiting room and seeing more drug company reps than patients and there has to be a reason for that. It's scary to think about.

[judi]

I think 'service country' was something sold to the people to hoodwink them into allowing companies to ship manufacturing overseas.  I remember wondering at the time how it would ever work. 

I don't begrudge people buying meds from India, I am thinking about getting a couple from them because I think it is criminal to charge what they do for some of them and I don't want to pay it on principle. 

I see drug reps in my pulmo's office quite frequently, they are usually buying him or the entire office staff food of some kind.

[justacaregiver]

I didn't want to say it but since you went there,,,,,

I'm quite sure that office staff has lunch each day of the week and it's booked long in advance.

I have no problem buying meds off shore either. For the last few years, the meds alone would have run me $40,000 plus if I didn't have insurance. The truth of the matter is even if you do purchase from your corner drug store, there's still a good chance it was imported or at least a part of it was.

The "powers that be" are still making the same money they were back then if not more now. Everyone knows that even if they wanted a domestic product, the price would go through the roof and once they had it in stock, they'd never be able to resell it.

Exactly where would we start? Tool and die makers, welders, machinists are all lost arts. The closed factory that have been turned into strip mall is all but empty because on-line sales makes the brick and mortar places useless. The pride of ownership is gone and I find that sad.