Joe and Terry Graedon write the popular People’s Pharmacy column syndicated in newspapers nationwide. Here’s how the Graedons answered a recent question on Medicare Part D and Canadian pharmacies.

Q. I am about to fall into the Medicare Part D “donut hole” and would like to buy my drugs from Canada to save money for the remainder of this year. How do I know which online pharmacy to select?

A. Many senior citizens who signed up for the prescription drug benefit from Medicare are shocked when they hit the so-called donut hole. When drug expenses come to a total of $2400, patients must pay 100 percent of their medication bill. If drug expenses eventually exceed $5,451, Part D kicks in again with catastrophic coverage until the end of the year.

If you don’t think your drug expenses will get that high, you may want to consider purchasing your medicines from Canada. (These do not qualify to get you out of the donut hole, though.) Be sure that you are shopping from a legitimate Canadian online pharmacy. Fraudulent pharmacies may be doing business from other countries without the quality control we expect from Canada.

We completely agree with the Graedons — which is why we created Canadian Online Pharmacies to ensure you only purchase from licensed Canadian pharmacies.

By the way, the dollar figures in the Graedons’ answer have changed for 2009, with drug prices soaring every year. The donut hole now begins when drug expenditures total $2,700.

American Prospect editor and healthcare policy opinion leader Ezra Klein recently had this to say about pending legislation that may, once and for all, legalize buying prescription drugs from Canada:

THE ABSURDITY OF DRUG IMPORTATION

Byron Dorgan’s office just sent out a press release noting that Obama supports the Dorgan-Snowe bill to allow importation of “lower-priced, Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs from other countries,” and they expect passage to be quick and clean. They’re probably right. But it’s always worth remembering what’s embedded in the drug importation — or, as some call it, “reimportation” — idea.

What the bill allows you to do, quite simply, is go to Canada and pick up a pack of Lipitor. But Lipitor is made by an American company in an American factory. Canada imports the drug. In theory, that should impose the extra cost on Canada and it should be cheaper in America. But it isn’t.

Canada has a national health care system that bargains down drug prices. They are so effective at it that it is literally cheaper for American consumers to buy back American-produced pharmaceuticals that drug companies have already sold at a profit to Canada than it is to buy from the producers directly. It’s inane. And allowing drug reimportation does not solve this problem. It dramatizes it.

We couldn’t agree more. As a commenter on Klein’s post puts it: “Drug re-importation is just outsourcing our law making. Nothing more than a straight admission that Congress is incapable of doing its job.”

We wholeheartedly agree.

We’d love it if Americans didn’t have to pay the highest drug prices in the world.

We’d love it if our legislators could stand up to Big Pharma instead of doing their bidding — and protecting their profits — at every turn.

We’d love it if Medicare were allowed to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma, to bring costs down to a reasonable level and eliminate the “doughnut hole” in drug coverage.

We’d love it if Congress were capable of doing its job — which should entail a complete overhaul of our broken healthcare system.

But until — and unless — that happens, the “absurd” solution of buying American drugs from Canada is the best answer we’ve got.

Because Big Pharma has successfully blocked the passage of bills legalizing the purchase of prescription drugs from Canada, American consumers are technically violating the law when they purchase their medications from Canadian pharmacies.

However, since polls consistently show that 80 percent of Americans want the right to buy Canadian drugs, the federal government is careful in their handling of this issue. In fact, no individual has been prosecuted since 1988 for re-importing prescription drugs for their personal use.

The FDA has issued enforcement guidelines that effectively allow Americans to purchase their drugs from licensed Canadian pharmacies, if the following seven conditions are met:

1) The drugs are for personal use.
2) The individual seeking to import the drugs has a valid prescription from a licensed U.S. physician.
3) The quantity of drugs does not exceed a three (3) months supply.
4) There is no known commercialization or promotion to persons residing in the U.S. by those involved in the distribution of the drugs.
5) The individual seeking to import the drugs affirms in writing that it is for the patient’s own personal use.
6) The individual seeking to import the drugs provides the name and address of the doctor licensed in the U.S. responsible for his or her treatment with the product.
7) The drugs do not contain a narcotic or controlled substance.

Personal Use

Drugs imported from Canada must be for your own use. You may not import drugs for resale. You may not import drugs for family, friends or any other third party. Any importation other than for your own use is a violation of drug import regulations.

Valid Prescription

You must have a valid prescription from your doctor. Importing drugs without a prescription from a licensed U.S. physician violates FDA regulations. In Canada, any pharmacy that dispenses prescription drugs without a prescription violates Canadian regulations. Online pharmacies offering to dispense prescription drugs without a prescription should be avoided.

Quantity

To ensure that prescription drugs are imported for personal use, the quantity you may import is limited to a three months supply. Any shipments over three months supply may be deemed importation for resale, which violates personal import regulations. If your prescription allows refills, you may import up to three refills, one every three months. To import more than three refills, you would need another prescription from your doctor.

Commercialization and Promotion

If those involved in the distribution of the drugs being imported conduct commercialization or promotion to persons residing in the U.S., the shipment may be held by customs and/or denied entry. Canadian or overseas pharmacies that advertise to you through direct mail, unsolicited bulk e-mail (spam) or any other form of commercialization or promotion are in violation of regulations and are best avoided.

Controlled Substances

Narcotics and other controlled substances are subject to DEA jurisdiction and cannot be imported under personal importation regulations. Such items may be held by customs and referred to the DEA for investigation. Exporting narcotics is a violation of Canadian export regulations, and any pharmacy that offers narcotics for export should be avoided.

Source

The licensed Canadian pharmacy CanDrugstore.com called our attention to an article by Mary Pitt, a U.S. senior citizen who is fed up with high drug costs, along with the other expenses eating into the fixed incomes of the elderly. Writes Mary of the predicament facing many seniors:

You have simply lasted too long. You have lost dearly loved ones to death for first one reason or another; even nursing a dear life mate through an illness that took years to claim them. You have worked, budgeted, and micro-managed to keep your family sustained and, due to your own age and illness, are now condemned to a life of poverty.

Your one source of income has become the Social Security check that appears in your bank account on a monthly basis.

Finally, you are notified that this amount will be increased by a bit more than you have received in the past. You silently say a whispered prayer of gratitude to whatever God you believe in. But wait! In the notice that you receive, you are told that, indeed, the amount IS added to your allotment, but then you learn that the “premium” for your Medicare Part B has been increased to $96.40 a month and, lower down, the “premium” for your Medicare Part D has increased to $87.70, leaving you an increase of a whole forty dollars with only a few dollars over a thousand to pay all the expenses necessary to your continued existence.

The problems do not end there. When you go to the pharmacy to have your prescriptions re-filled, you learn that the insurance company has increased the “co-payment” by $10.00 on each medication. If you take four medicines, there goes your $40.00 a month net increase! Right into the voracious gaping maw of an insurance company’s bank account…

Mary calls on President Obama to increase the government safety net for seniors. CanDrugstore.com notes, however, that Obama already endorses one action that can save Pitt and other seniors money: buying their medications from licensed Canadian pharmacies.

As CanDrugstore.com explains:

The practice of buying [Canadian] drugs online was forbidden by the Bush administration, but it is actually endorsed under the Obama Healthcare Reform Plan, provided “the drugs are safe and the prices are lower outside the U.S.”

Canada has some of the strictest pharmaceutical standards in the world. Not only do patients save up to 70% with CIPA-certified international pharmacies, but they can rest assured that they’re getting medications that are also 100% safe.

Amen to that.

President Barack Obama

John Mattes of the CW television affiliate in San Diego has an excellent segment on President Obama’s support of Canadian pharmacies as a means to lower the outrageously high drug prices paid by American consumers. Here’s an excerpt:

It was less than 5 years ago that seniors had a great way to buy cheaper drugs. Stores opened up locally, selling access to Canadian pharmacies. Seniors saved up to 50% on drugs — until the FDA ordered the stores closed, citing safety.

The FDA said seniors were at risk but could not produce a single senior who had gotten ill from Canadian pharmaceuticals.

Now the Obama White House is planning to reverse the policy, to let seniors make a choice where to buy their prescription drugs.

Greg Knoll is a healthcare advocate. He supports the Obama proposal, saying he has seen what happens when seniors can’t afford prescriptions.

“I saw seniors eat cat food in order to afford prescription drugs,” said Knoll…

Knoll says Americans should be able to choose where to buy their drugs.

“Isn’t that the great American way? Supply and demand?” asked Knoll. “It’s competition. It’s where you can get the best price for your dollar.”

Watch the video of Mattes’ report.