Why Do Americans Pay So Much For Our Prescriptions (And Canadians Don't?)

[karynnj]

14. I think that is part of the point

Why should drugs made here cost MORE 2 blocks from the plant where they are made than after they are trucked to Canada -- and then trucked back (if reimportation were legal)?

The reason is that the patent laws give companies monopolies for several years on drugs they invent. Unlike the local telephone companies which at one time had natural monopolies, they are not regulated by anyone. (It was AT&T, early in its history that proposed the idea of regulation in return for being allowed to be a monopoly.) This means that they can charge what the market will bear. If you have a drug benefit, you may have a tool on their website that shows you how much something costs (retail), what you pay and what they pay. They do not, at least part of the time, pay the retail rate. Obviously, Canada negotiates an even
lower rate with the company.

This means that the person who likely can afford it the least - the person in the US with no drug plan - pays the highest cost. More than the insurance companies and much less than people in Canada.

I understand the reason that this company makes reimportation a step in lowering costs, but I really think that it might be better to try to put in some regulation to replace the various negotiated prices. There is something wrong when the cost of a truck load of drugs made in the US costs so much more to the unisured in the US that adding the two way trucking costs still results in a lower cost.