Instead of addressing their criticism northward,
Gov. John Baldacci and his colleagues should
increase pressure on Washington to change this
country's drug-pricing policies. Five governors
recently wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Paul
Martin asking him to not restrict his country's
exports of lower-cost drugs to the United
States. Gov. Baldacci's added concern became
apparent during his State of the State when he
described a Penobscot Nation plan to wholesale
Canadian drugs, but it is the job of the U.S.
government and Congress, not that of Canada, to
safeguard American lives by making drugs more
affordable.
The Canadian Health Minister, Ujjal Dosanjh,
has rightly raised concerns that his country is
becoming "the drug store to the United States."
Americans are increasingly crossing the border
to go to Canadian pharmacies or ordering
Canadian drugs over the Internet. Because the
Canadian government regulates drug prices as
part of its national health care system, prices
are often half that in the United States for the
same medication. An estimated $1 billion worth
of prescription drugs are sent from Canada to
the United States each year.
Drug companies have threatened to limit the
supply of medications to Canadian pharmacies
that are known to sell to American consumers.
Still, the governors of Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Kansas and North Dakota joined Gov. Baldacci in
pleading with Prime Minister Martin. "We believe
it is imperative that the Canadian government
realize the restriction of prescription drug
supplies could mean the difference between life
and death for many Americans," they wrote. Ditto
for the American government.
Rather than complain to Canadian government
officials, the governors should collectively
direct their ire at Washington and,
specifically, call for negotiated prices, not
re-importation schemes. The federal government
already negotiates prices for medications for
veterans and some cancer patients, and every
other developed country does so.
Instead, Congress passed a Medicare reform
that forbids the federal government from
negotiating lower drug prices. Sen. Olympia
Snowe introduced legislation last year that
would give the health and human services
secretary authority to negotiate lower drug
prices for participants in the Medicare program.
She plans to do so again this session.
"Drugs, if they're not affordable, can't be
effective, and in my state just recently three
individuals were hospitalized because they could
not afford medication. So I think that the
federal government needs to use every tool
available to negotiate lower prices and to be in
a position to leverage lower prices," Sen.
Snowe told former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt,
the HHS secretary-designate, during his
confirmation hearing.
To paraphrase the governors, it is imperative
that the American government, not Canada's,
realize the effects of the current policy and
then change it.
