Say Anything Blog

Interesting…

WASHINGTON - Efforts to allow Americans access to cheaper prescription drugs from abroad should blossom once Democrats assume control in Congress, but it won’t be a top priority, lawmakers and health care experts said.

Members of the House and Senate are gearing up for a renewed push to change federal law and permit broader imports of prescription drugs from Canada and elsewhere, where certain medicines can cost less than two-thirds what they do in the United States. Their hope is the imports will drive down prices at home.

“The pressure is not to tell people you have to go outside this country to buy prescription drugs. The pressure is to force the pharmaceutical companies to re-price their drugs in the U.S.,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who has introduced with Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a bill to make importation of prescription drugs legal.

The issue remains overwhelmingly popular with voters, even though the government estimates it would do little to actually cut the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs.

I’ve never been quite sure what to make of this.

My instinct, as a conservative, is to say that this is just an expansion of free trade.  Competition is a good thing.  If allowing foreign drug manufacturers and distributors the opportunity to compete with their counterparts here in the US can give us even the possibility of lower prices for our prescription drugs why wouldn’t we do it?  I know there are safety concerns over drugs brought into the U.S. from foreign sources, but we already bring in stuff like food from other countries.  Seems like we could monitor the quality of imported drugs the same way we monitor the quality of imported food.

All that being said, the idea of opening up to foreign drug companies is something that Republicans have opposed in the past.  I’ve never figured out why they’ve done that, aside from health concerns which really don’t seem to be all that concerning as I pointed out above.

America has big time problems in the health care field.  Health care and drugs are just too expensive.  When it comes to health care, I’ve always said that the introduction of market forces into industry (like health savings accounts, for instance, and more personal responsibility for footing the bill for health care) is the best path to a solution.  I subscribe to the same thinking when it comes to prescription drugs.  More competition among drug companies both domestic and international would provide more choices for Americans and lower prices.

So I think I support Dorgan on this one, which is odd because normally Dorgan is a staunch protectionist.  He doesn’t like the idea of domestic companies outsourcing or foreign countries hawking their wares and services here in America, yet on this issue he’s all about free international trade.  Which makes me think that maybe I’m missing something here to have ended up on Dorgan’s side.