Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2213

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Seniors Go North For Cheaper Medication
Yahoo News 2001 Nov 16

Full text:

A senior citizens’ group sent another busload of Indiana residents to Canada Friday to save money on prescription drugs.

Members of United Senior Action group said they hope the trip sends a message to state lawmakers, though they won’t stop at symbolism. They will visit the Statehouse Tuesday to ask for new laws aimed at achieving what they would call fair drug prices in Indiana.

The group left Indianapolis Friday morning on a charter bus, bound for Ontario. On the two-day trip, seniors — carrying written permission from their American doctors — will visit a Canadian physician who will write them prescriptions, which will be filled there.

In Canada, drugs generally are cheaper. A study released earlier this year showed that prices of drugs commonly needed by seniors rose recently in the United States by more than twice the rate of inflation.

The seniors on the trip say they hope to save around 50 percent on their drugs.

The group has made the trip before. In June, about 100 seniors filled up on medication in Windsor, Ontario. The 100 saved thousands of dollars, the group said.

One couple from Richmond, Ind., said they save about $3,000 a year by getting their drugs in Canada.

The trip is sponsored in part by the United Auto Workers.

The Food and Drug Administration says that such trips are legal as long as the prescriptions are legitimate and the drugs are FDA- approved.