Should prescriptions cross borders?

The U.S. cannot solve its "Medicare donut hole" through Canada's back door. That's the conclusion of a new health care paper published by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS). It points out that as Americans head into an election year, drug re-importation will likely become an issue, particularly with several states actively promoting the re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada as a method to control Medicare costs.

"We should be concerned when American politicians start using re-importation of Canadian drugs as a political smokescreen. A policy of controlling U.S. drug costs by shipping drugs north to Canada and hoping that they will still be cheap when they come back into the U.S. is on a par with asking the Tooth Fairy to provide a national dental service on the grounds that it will be selffinancing," writes author Brian Ferguson, AIMS Fellow in Health Care Economics and a professor of economics at the University of Guelph. To read the complete report, visit www.aims.ca.

Atlantic Institute for Market Studies