This opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required), titled "Why Not Import Drugs From Fantasyland?" got my attention. Referring to an announcement last week from Congress of "bipartisan legislation to allow 're-importation' of drugs sold to Canada," the column continues:
We're not in business to give Congress even worse ideas than it can come up with on its own, but if the Canadian system is so great, why not just enact our own Canadian-style price controls here? Or why not just mandate that all U.S. drugs be shipped to Canada and then shipped back so they'll be eligible for Canadian prices and all Americans can have cheaper drugs? What's the point of simply sanctifying ad hoc hoops and hurdles that permit a few Canadian Internet pharmacists to get rich by arbitraging between our system and theirs?"Web Site Lets Uninsured Compare Medication Costs," is the headline of this story today in the Washington Post, that reports:
With a new Web site -- one of the first of its kind in the country -- unveiled yesterday by Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., uninsured patients like Schuldenfrei can enter a Zip code and prescription type and compare the prices at pharmacies in the neighborhood and across the state.Here is the link to the Maryland Drug Calculator.It's the latest attempt to bring down the price of prescription drugs. Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) recently announced that Maryland will join a pool of states that could save money by buying drugs in bulk. And Montgomery County, as part of its employee health plan, is considering importing drugs from Canada, where prescription drugs are generally less expensive because of a weak Canadian dollar and price controls set as part of the country's national health care program. * * *
In Maryland, Curran noted at the news conference where reporters and senior citizens crowded around tables and leaned against the walls, almost 700,000 people younger than 65 have no health insurance, and more than 220,000 seniors on Medicare have no prescription drug coverage -- that's "about 1 million Marylanders," he added, " . . . a lot of us."
So about a year ago, inspired by programs in Arizona, New Mexico and Maine that surveyed pharmacies and publicized the disparate costs for prescription drugs, Curran (D) decided to embark upon a similar effort but take it one step further.
Culling information from Medicaid reimbursement requests, Curran's staff was able to determine how much each of the state's 1,200 pharmacies was charging for 25 of the most commonly prescribed drugs. All of that information, updated monthly, is now available on the Web site: www.oag.state.md.us.
In Montgomery, the price of the cholesterol-lowering medication Lipitor can range from $60 to $109, a difference of $49 a month or $588 a year, according to the Web site. In Prince George's County, the price can run from $68 to $98, while in Howard County, Lipitor is sold for $72 to $104.
When Curran first alerted the state's 1,200 pharmacies to what he was doing, many expressed concern. Some 24-hour pharmacies worried that they would be undercut by pharmacies that didn't keep extended hours, said Carolyn Quattrocki, Curran's special assistant, who oversaw creation of the Web site. Independent drugstores, which offer a personal relationship with a pharmacist, fretted that price comparisons with large chains such as Target and Wal-Mart would put them out of business.
Here is an earlier (4/23/04) Indiana Law Blog entry on drug prices.
Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 28, 2004 12:28 PM