Published Jan. 22, 2003
After years of unsuccessfully lobbying for government price controls on prescription drugs, the Minnesota Senior Federation announced Tuesday that it has negotiated an agreement under which any member can get drugs mailed from Canada at about half the U.S. retail price.
"This is not the best solution to the outrageous price of drugs," said Kate Stahl, 83, former president of the federation's metro region who helped negotiate the contract. "But it's the best we can do until our government leaders get the guts to stand up to the drug companies."
Seniors' organizations in Wisconsin and Indiana joined the federation in negotiating the agreement with CanadaRx, a six-year-old Toronto firm that mails drugs to U.S. residents. Similar groups from other states are in talks to join, officials said.
Under the program, anyone can join the advocacy group and ask his or her physician to mail or fax prescriptions for any of about 1,800 drugs to CanadaRx. On average, prices are about 45 percent cheaper than in the United States, federation officials said.
Because it takes two or three weeks to get the prescriptions, officials said most users will be people who regularly take drugs to treat heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis or other chronic conditions.
"This is really a pretty big deal for Minnesotans, especially older Minnesotans," said Jim Varpness, executive director of the Minnesota Board on Aging at the state Department of Human Services.
"The high cost of prescription drugs has been a major issue in the aging community for years," he said. "We're still hoping that Congress this year will offer a drug benefit with Medicare. But 80 percent of seniors take at least one prescription drug, and half of seniors have no drug insurance. So this is important."
'Legal gray area'
The program benefits anyone who uses it, but also lowers costs for insurers that offer a drug benefit to older people, federation officials said.
However, the program is operating in "a legal gray area," said Pete Wyckoff, executive director of the federation's metro region.
In 2000 Congress repealed a law prohibiting individuals from reimporting U.S.-made drugs, but the Clinton and Bush administrations refused to implement the program. Several years ago, the Food and Drug Administration sent letters to some Americans ordering drugs by mail, warning that their drugs might be confiscated.
"Since then, there's been no effort to stop the shipments of prescriptions, and the number of companies now offering prescriptions from Canada on the Internet or through the mail has greatly increased," Wyckoff said.
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http://www.startribune.com/stories/1556/3605932.html
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/ dave /