As Patrick Henry would say, "The next gale that sweeps from the north shall bring with it the roar of, not muskets, but of seniors rushing to fill their prescriptions at bargain rates in Canada."
Yes folks, there's a border war going on right now in the northern U.S. Our drug companies have opened their bloated treasuries to mount an ad campaign to stop this market-driven RX rush. The ads don't argue issues. They just blast proposals to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. They are also training their guns against the Canadian health care system for its audacity in offering drugs at such low prices. Never mind that it's the drug companies that sell their drugs to Canada well below what they sell to U.S. distributors.
Adding drug benefits to Medicare for its 40 million beneficiaries is a hot issue in Congress and its getting hotter in this election year. Politicians don't forget that seniors buy lots of drugs and also vote in large numbers. Tip O'Neal once said, "All politics is local." Today he could have added, "all issues are political."
Both parties recognize the popularity of adding prescription benefits to Medicare. The Democrats will be pushing it hard since they lost the senior vote in congressional elections in 1998 by 10 percent. The Republicans will be trying to dodge this bullet, not by support, but by confusing the issue. They basically believe any government supported health benefit is another step down the road to socialized medicine. Most pundits predict that the issue will fail this year in the GOP controlled congress. Republicans may pay a price at the polls.
In the coming debate many good reasons for passage will be offered but the nub of the issue is the awesome purchasing power of the U.S. government and its ability to drive down prices. Under the Clinton proposal, Medicare administrators would hire private companies to buy drugs for the elderly and negotiate discounts from the drug manufacturers and pharmacies. This would bring costs down to Canadian levels and cut a big slice out of obscene drug profits This is what strikes terror in the hearts of drug company CEOs. Congress will be inundated in a sea of soft money.
Hold on to your hats. This year we may really see democracy in action. The muskets are loaded and the cash is flowing.. Forget what's best for seniors. Money has been called the mother's milk of politics and greed seems to be the driving force of the drug moguls.
