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Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer has always been right at the forefront of the drug re-importation debate. In previous runs for Governor he highlighted the issue by actually busing senior citizens into Canada to purchase cheaper pills. A few weeks ago, Schweitzer sent a letter to the HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, calling for a waiver to allow Montanans on Medicaid and CHIP to get imported prescription drugs from Canada.
During this time of economic recession, states have made very tough choices to balance their human services budgets. There is one area where costs could be controlled without adversely impacting people who need health care. I am asking you to join me in my fight against unfair drug pricing by granting a Medicaid waiver allowing us to import prescription drugs from Canada for Montanans covered by Medicaid, Healthy Montana Kids (Montana’s CHIP program), our state employee health plan and our correctional systems. By allowing Montana to import medications from Canada we estimate we could save up to $40 million.
The Missoulian follows up on the issue today.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer is still moving forward with his plan to import cheaper medicine from Canada, despite promises made in the health care reform recently passed by fellow Democrats in Washington D.C.
Schweitzer says the health care reform does far less than critics allege and supporters claim. He says prescription drugs will still be too expensive.
It’s impossible to counter Schweitzer’s argument. Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that the Montana Governor was delivering the official Democratic radio address on this subject. The PhRMA deal in the Affordable Care Act has been universally recognized as ugly; just yesterday the AP credibly alleged that the drug lobby basically won out more than any other stakeholder. And even though Montana’s own Max Baucus can be credited with engineering the deal, Schweitzer continues to press for fair treatment for his constituents and a fair price for their medical care.
Good for him. No response yet from HHS.
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You know, this is just asinine. There is no other way to describe it. If you want lower drug prices from the same firms that are selling to Canada at lower prices, you regulate the price. Why depend on some other country to do the heavy lifting. As far as that goes, why not allow imports from Europe? Has anyone checked the drug prices there? It’s not as if the transport cost is all that much higher than from Canada, given the size of the little thingies.
there’s a viagra joke in there somewhere. Eh?
It will never happen cause it trumps big fat pharma.
good on him
Pill, Baby, Pill!
The word “regulate” sends Republics into a petulant frenzy, thus making legislating impossible.
I e-mailed (I love being one of the 40K) ObamaRahma today: Brian Schweitzer for President 2012. I don’t know what it will take to knock Obama off his marshmallow pedestal, but I’ll keep trying.
Why are drugs from Canada cheaper when they are made by the same damn Pharma companies? Getting your drugs from another nation isn’t going to change anything. Perhaps maybe healthcare reform is in the plans? Right after eleventy dimensional chess, drill baby drill, megacorporate bailout 2010, and a host of other Republitard legislation?
Duh.
Thanks for some positive news and the Montana Gov. update, David.
Any crack in the damn will do to make me smile, at this point.
Besides Dean, who I become more disappointed in by the day, this is the guy that I think that would be the best independent 3rd party candidate for president. He won the governorship of a very red state. As a side note, if you are a democrat hoping to win in a red state, the first thing you do is assure the republicans that you are not out to seize their guns … the very first thing … otherwise they will not listen to you.
I proposed trying to recruit Schweitzer in some sort of progressive project contest on openleft in the spring of 2009. It was for a micro-grant and I think kos was involved as well, in fact it may have been his contest. Of course, I never even got a reply from bowers or kos to my idea since it is party above principle with that sorry demo-zombie hacks.
Z
Interesting idea. We need to find some progressives to run. And also to keep bringing up the issues at the state and local level. We’d like to re-importation in Minnesota too.
Higher drug prices: part of the “Affordable” Health Care Act. What a joke.
Good for him, and I’m all for trying to recruit him to run. I’ve been impressed with him so far.
But agree that it’s all @$$backwards to have to import drugs made in the good ole Yew-Ess-Aay from Canada or Mexico or wherever. So stupid on so many levels (not Sweitzer, but just about everything else).
That said, bringing up regulations doesn’t just send Republicans into a “petulant frenzy,” in their own way, Dems don’t like it either… it keeps K Street from giving them all the filthy lucre that those swine like to get and keep for themselves.
Sheesh. And so when’s the countdown for how it takes “them” to “get” to Schweitzer???? Like how BHO “got” to Kucinich and Dean caved, etc.
Unlike Baucus and to a lesser extent Tester, Schweitzer is a person that anyone from Montana, or even the party of Ds in general, can be proud to have represent them in government. Unfortunately the bought and paid for, such as Team Obama, would never let people’s lives trump profits. So long as the majority of Ds worship corporate greed and their corporate constituents needs, others will pay. Honestly though, if Schweitzer were a national candidate those that want a gunless utopia might be disappointed. There are very few Montanans that don’t own and know how to handle guns. Still, a lot of people raised in cities, might think that guns are a replacement for genitalia and that is most certainly not the case.
I disagree to some extent with those that think that Montana is a very red state, though. Mike Mansfield, a past Senator from that state, was the nation’s longest serving Democratic Senator. Part that time he spent with Lee Metcalf as junior Senator. The state fell under the sway of St. Ronnie but that seems to have come to an end.
People that live in the northen states have continued to cross the border for cheaper drugs all along. It is a shameful crime that Dorgan’s Bill was defeated. He had the votes until the WH intervened.
As far as that goes, why not allow imports from Europe? Has anyone checked the drug prices there?
Yes. As an American living in France and currently in the U.S., I can affirm that prices for basic medicines in the U.S. are 6 to 10 times higher than prices in France for the exact same medicines made by the same companies. Basically what Americans with good insurance pay on their co-pays for drugs here in the U.S. are what drugs cost over the counter in France. So does your American insurance company really pay the difference? I doubt it. American blood supplies the massive profits of Big Pharma.
Just so you all know, Big Pharma is doing its darndest to force we, the Canuckistantian people, to capitulate and stop regulating price and demanding demonstrable effectiveness.
Here is just one example of how they’re going about it.
Drugs are cheaper in Canada because, when Big Pharma lobbied the Canadian federal government for a patent extension (to keep generics off the market longer), the federal government gladly gave them their patent extension ….. provided that Big Pharma agreed to price controls.