|
RxExpress Now Heads Up East Coast Taking Seniors to
Buy Canadian Drugs
Sept. 22, 2004 The RxExpress is about to make
another drug run to Canada. This time they will pick up pre-selected
senior citizens along the East Coast to take them across the northern
U.S. border to buy prescription drugs at prices much lower than those
available in their own country.
 |
|
|
Flanagan Leads
RxExpress
Jerry Flanagan is FTCR's lead advocate on healthcare reform and personal
privacy issues and is recognized as one of California's leading analysts
of legislative efforts to address those issues. He is responsible for
overseeing the California Health Consensus Project's
(www.calhealthconsensus.org) development and implementation.
Flanagan has recently organized a series of televised town halls
throughout California, including one produced for PBS. He has also
devoted significant time to research and advocacy on the issues of
energy deregulation, clean water and campaign finance reform. Prior to
joining FTCR, Flanagan worked for 7 years with the Public Interest
Research Group (PIRG) in New Jersey and California. With PIRG, Flanagan
wrote and won passage of one of the nation's strongest HMO
accountability measures, which was signed into law in New Jersey on July
30, 2001.
Recently, Flanagan wrote a report, "A Cure for Rising Health Care
Costs - Prescription Drug Buying Pools", that outlines a plan to
eliminate inefficiencies in the state's procurement of prescription
drugs with the effect of saving hundreds of millions of dollars
annually. Flanagan received a BA in Social/Cultural Anthropology and in
Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.
jerry@consumerwatchdog.org
|
|
The train will leave from Miami on Oct. 11 and then
pickup passengers and hold news conferences in Florida, Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and
New York. The destination for the drug purchases is
Toronto, Canada, where they will arrive on Oct. 13. They will fly home
the next day.
This trip, like a similar
excursion up the West Coast, is sponsored by
The Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights (FTCR) - a
nationally-recognized, California-based, non-profit education and
advocacy organization. (Read
Rx Express Riders Live on Web Today from British Columbia - 8/26/04)
FTCR is providing the train,
accommodations, return airfare, and most meals at no charge to the
riders selected. In Toronto, the seniors will be seen by a doctor and
issued a Canadian prescription. Participants will be charged a nominal
fee in Canada for the doctor's services and will be taken to a Canadian
drug store to fill a three-month supply of each prescription for which
the patient will be charged.
Please help us recruit for the
Rx Express! wrote organizer Jerry Flanagan in a message to supporters.
We are looking for seniors and patients with significant out-of-pocket
expenses for their prescription drugs to join us, he wrote. He says the
passengers will be seniors enrolled in the Medicare prescription
drug discount card program who still cannot afford their medications.
The goal of the trip is to
demonstrate the tremendous disparity between prices of prescription
drugs in Canada and what we pay here in the U.S. as well as to highlight
the need for a national drug bulk-purchasing program and other policies
to provide access to lower cost prescriptions, according to Flanagan.
Prescription drugs are available in Canada, England, Ireland and other
countries at 30-60% less than in the United States because those
countries negotiate rates on behalf of all patients -- a move that drug
companies have blocked in the U.S.
As was done on the West Coast
trip, Flanagan is inviting the media, as well as President George W.
Bush and Sen. John Kerry to join the trip.
In the letter sent today to Bush and Kerry,
Flanagan wrote:
"As many Rx Express riders will tell you, the
Medicare prescription drug law is inadequate and deeply flawed. Many
seniors have ignored the new discount drug card program because either
their medicines are not available, the discounts are not what were
promised, or because the program is too complex. Other patients too
young for Medicare cannot afford basic health coverage because
prescription drug increases are making health care unaffordable."
Flanagan pointed out that a new national survey -
available at
http://www.ResultsforAmerica.org - found that among Americans with
health care insurance who purchase prescription drugs:
-- One-third (34 percent) are either already
purchasing or planning to purchase lower costs prescriptions from
pharmacies in Canada or other nations.
-- Nearly two in ten (18 percent) say they either
skip medications or reduce dosages to "stretch" their medication due to
high costs. This percentage equates to over 20 million Americans.
-- Eight of ten (83 percent) say that the U.S.
should follow the lead of other nations and negotiate bulk discounts on
prescription drugs.
In the letter sent today he wrote:
"Prescription drugs are available in Canada,
England and Ireland at 30-60 percent less than in the United States
because those countries control drug prices by negotiating rates on
behalf of all patients - a move that drug companies have blocked in the
U.S. This limitation is particularly absurd given that the U.S.
Department of Veteran Affairs has used a similar strategy to save
veterans more than 50 percent off the list price of prescription drugs."
Flanagan maintains that under pressure from the
pharmaceutical industry, President Bush opposed bulk purchasing in the
2003 Medicare prescription drug law which banned the Medicare program
from negotiating discounts with pharmaceutical companies. While Senator
Kerry has supported changes to the Medicare drug law to allow bulk
discounting, neither candidate has supported a program that would allow
any American to participate regardless of age.
According to federal filings, as of August 2
President Bush had received $871,824 in campaign contributions from
pharmaceutical companies and Senator Kerry had received $349,312,
according to Flanagan.
Flanagan described the Rx Express passengers
already selected.
-- Gene and Betty Greenspan have lived in Miami,
Florida for over 30 years. Gene was the director of a non-profit Jewish
social services organization which offered full health care benefits for
he and his wife, Betty, while he was working but does not provide health
care retirement benefits. Now, though Gene and Betty have supplemental
health insurance with their Medicare coverage, they must pay for all
their prescription costs out-of-pocket. The Greenspan's have looked into
the Medicare drug discount card but could not find a program that would
guarantee that their prescriptions would be available when they need
them.
-- Ann Streacker of Winterhaven, Florida is a
single mom working for a state agency but because she was hired on a
contract basis, she does not have any health care coverage for herself
or her child. For Ann, 32, diagnosed this year with a long-term medical
condition, the financial strain of being uninsured has forced her to buy
her prescription drugs from Canada. She's worried about what will happen
if shipments from Canada are blocked and would like to see U.S. policies
that will provide a sustainable supply of lower cost prescription drugs.
-- Joe and Joyce Shannon of Raleigh, North Carolina
had prescription drug coverage for their dozen or so medications through
Joe's part-time employer, a local pharmacy. That is until Joe, now in
his 70s, fell and broke his hip. Following the accident, Joe went on
COBRA to continue his coverage but that became too expensive on the
Shannon's limited income. Now Joe and Joyce are facing a $900/month
prescription drug bill and are running out of options. Joyce has limited
coverage for generic drugs through supplemental insurance but it does
not provide any help for the brand name drugs she needs to treat her
osteoporosis.
-- Mildred and Leonard Fruhling of Edison, New
Jersey watched both of their grown children complete engineering degrees
at Rutgers University. Mildred, who spent 25 years in health insurance
sales, became active in the Medicare and prescription drug debate when
she retired, but did not expect the issue to hit so close to home: three
years ago her husband's employer terminated their prescription drug
retirement coverage when cost increases became too great.
Those interested in joining the trip should contact
David Fink at (310) 392-0522 ext. 320 (david@consumerwatchdog.org)
or Laura Antonini at (310) 392-0522 ext. 306 (laura@consumerwatchdog.org).
More information is available at
http://www.RxExpressCanada.org.
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
