>Then there is the huge drop in prices in Canada and Mexico where there
>are chain stores all along the border who sell drugs for USers doing
>their drug store shopping. I think I've read or seen somewhere that
>there are regularly scheduled bus routes that do nothing but take
>seniors across the Canadian and Mexican borders to do their drug
>shopping.
True. But Canadian prices on brand-name drugs are universally lower than U.S. ones, not just on the border. They have enforceable price guidelines for brand-name drugs (generics aren't price regulated), which are linked to the price of other drugs already used to treat the same disease, or lacking that, the price can't exceed the average price of that drug in several other selected countries, mostly European ones. It is also illegal to charge consumers one price and government another. (I think price rises also can't exceed the inflation rate.) There are other factors, of course. I think trying to get meds into provincial formularies gives companies an incentive to keep prices low.
Jenny Brown