Millions of Americans are victims of legal extortion. I’m
talking about the gouging of the United States by prescription drug
companies. I’m talking about the exorbitant (and usually
unwarranted) prices of prescription medicines and the questionable,
quite immoral, policies designed to protect and enrich the
manufacturers.
In recent years, prescription expenses have absolutely soared.
And this is not because drug prices simply parallel the costs of
research and fair profit.
Unfair prices for Cipro, a popular antibiotic, exemplify the
problem. The manufacturing cost for each pill is only 10-20 cents.
However, an uninsured American pays a whopping $300 for a bottle of
60 pills ““ five dollars for a single tablet. But not
everybody pays this price. Public health facilities pay a mere 43
cents for each pill.
This is not a unique case. Across the board, drug prices depend
upon who’s buying. For example, the Nevada Health Reform
Project and the Nevada Nurses Association estimate that if a
prescription costs $100 for an uninsured individual, an HMO or
Medicaid will only be billed $65, while the Department of Defense
and Veteran Affairs are only charged $46. This is a huge and
completely inappropriate difference.
One in every four Americans is forced to pay out of pocket for
prescription drugs because their insurance plans do not cover
medication. And instead of having such hardship taken into
consideration and being offered discounted prices, the uninsured
are essentially punished twice.
Uninsured families are charged more than the insured because
insurance companies have the power and ability to negotiate on
behalf of their customers while the average person can do nothing
but pay ““ or stop taking (potentially life-saving)
medication.
If this isn’t extortion, I don’t know what is.
In order to cope with rising costs, many people, particularly
senior citizens, have been forced to make drastic lifestyle
changes. As Missouri state representative Kathleen Law explains,
“Seniors shouldn’t have to to risk their health by
sharing drugs, skipping doses, or doing without medicine altogether
because it’s too expensive.”
A growing number of U.S. residents are turning to Canada or
Mexico for affordable prescription drugs either via Internet sites
(i.e. Rx Depot, a Canadian company) or by simply walking across the
border to make purchases.
New York, Illinois, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Wisconsin have
had enough of medicine price-gouging and are lobbying the federal
government for cheaper, Canadian drugs for their state workers and
programs.
It’s about time. One report recently released in Illinois
estimates state employees would save up to $1,008 per year
importing Canadian drugs, and the combined overall savings would be
$90.7 million annually.
But despite strong support, the FDA doggedly opposes importing
drugs from Canada. U.S. District Judge of Illinois Claire Eagan
ordered Rx Depot to cease its operations, stating that “the
defendants are able to offer lower prices only because they
facilitate illegal activity determined by Congress to harm the
public interest.”
Eagan’s claims are bogus. Canada is among the
world’s most rigid in pharmaceutical quality oversight. The
drugs are the same as those sold in America.
So, if Eagan and the FDA are so concerned with “public
interest” why are prescription drugs still so expensive?
Politics.
In 2002, drug companies contributed close to $30 million to
political campaigns, and have already spent more than $3 million
for 2004. Two-thirds of this money went to Republicans,
As long as the companies keep contributing, we’ll keep
paying. For example, according The Los Angeles Times, the Bush
administration and supporters are currently attempting to add a
“$400-billion drug benefit to Medicare that prohibits, not
just omits, cost controls.”
Congressman Bernard Sanders (I-VT) says, “For the last
year, the pharmaceutical industry has used scare tactics to try and
stop real prescription drug legislation from passing in
Congress.” We must not allow this to happen.
Importation of Canadian prescription drugs must be allowed. When
we talk about prescription drugs, we’re not debating
philosophy. We’re arguing for something that is a basic human
right.
The affordability of essential medicines is often literally a
life-and-death matter. To deny people their medicine because of
greedy pharmaceutical pricing policies is equivalent to legalizing
criminal activity. Both are crimes against innocent citizens.
Fried is a first-year history student. E-mail her at ifried@
media.ucla.edu.