Utah Sends Employees to Mexico for Lower Prescription Prices

New York Times (AP)
Utah Sends Employees to Mexico for Lower Prescription Prices"The cost difference is so large that the state's insurance program for public employees can pay for each patient’s flight, give them a $500-per-trip bonus and still save tens of thousands of dollars."

It's a shame the United States government refuses to do a damn thing about this. Sure every election cycle these windbags talk, talk and talk about doing something about it... but it never happens.

I've read a number of folks who organized frequent group travels to Canada and Mexico. This is the first I heard of insurance paying for it. Since the conservative wing of this government is so beholden to pharmaceutical firms I wonder how long before congress or some government agency makes laws against this and begin confiscating them at the border.

With only four Republicans voting in favor the house passed H.R.3 - Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act last December. Then sent it to the Senate. Where it still awaits action to take it up by Mitch McConnell (the grim reaper).



Nancy PELOSI PUT OUT THIS STATEMENT which said in part... Gives Medicare the power to negotiate directly with the drug companies, and creates strong new tools to force drug companies to the table to agree to real price reductions, while ensuring seniors never lose access to the prescriptions they need.

Makes the lower drug prices negotiated by Medicare available to Americans with private insurance, not just Medicare beneficiaries.

Stops drug companies ripping off Americans while charging other countries less for the same drugs, limiting the maximum price for any negotiated drug to the average price in countries like ours, where drug companies charge less for the same drugs – and admit they still make a profit.

Creates a new, $2,000 out-of-pocket limit on prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries, and reverses years of unfair price hikes above inflation across thousands of drugs in Medicare.

Reinvests in innovation and the search for new cures and treatments, using some of the savings from lowering the unjustified drug prices that are bankrolling Big Pharma’s stock-buybacks to reinvest billions of dollars in the search for new breakthrough treatments and cures at the National Institutes of Health.The "grim reaper' strikes again!
Mitch McConnell already promised back in September (when the bill was first introduced) it would be "dead on arrival" in the Senate. According to AMERICAN INDEPENDANT (01/08/2020)..-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell still refuses to hold a vote on a House-passed bill that could drastically lower costs....

In an email, the committee revealed that the House-passed bill would lower the cost of Humira by 81%, from $34,411 per year to $8,276 per year. For Premarin, the House-passed measure would drop the cost by 96%, from $568 to just $21 per year.

The same analysis showed H.R. 3 could lower the cost of several other prescription drugs that increased in cost in 2020, including medication dealing with diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and arthritis. The costs of drugs provided by the committee would drop in prices ranging from a 73% drop for Gilenya, a medication for multiple sclerosis, to a 96% drop for Premarin.Obviously he has thrown his lot in with Trump trying to destroy the Democrats at all costs. So much so nothing else matters. I'd bet a dollar and a donut if they renamed this bill "The Ivanka Trump Lower Drug Costs Now Act" it would sail through the Senate and Donald would sign it in less then 24 hours. What a bunch of bullshit to withhold this from the American people.

May 2019

It's gotten only worse.
Now there's over 250 bills the house passed sitting on his desk.
H.R. 3 being one of them.