30 Apr 2004
Senate OKs motion to license Canadian pharmacies in R.I.
PROVIDENCE -- The Senate on Thursday joined the House of Representatives in giving the OK for Canadian pharmacies to be licensed in Rhode Island.
The result, backers of the bill say, will be that Rhode Islanders will soon be able to take advantage of the lower prices for prescription drugs offered by our neighbors to the north.
"We owe it to the citizens of Rhode Island to do everything in our power to reduce the increasing cost of pharmaceutical drugs," said Sen. Daniel Issa of Central Falls, Cumberland and Pawtucket. "We did that when we passed RIPAE (Rhode Island Pharmaceutical Assistance for the Elderly), we did that when we passed my coupon bill (permitting Rhode Islanders to take advantage of manufacturer's coupons and other discounts for prescription drugs). I never saw this chamber turn down an opportunity to help citizens of this state deal with the cost of pharmaceutical drugs."
Often the same drugs manufactured by the same pharmaceutical companies cost significantly less in Canada because the Canadian government has negotiated a discount with the drug makers. The Medicare prescription drug bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Bush last year explicitly forbids our government from negotiating any such discount.
In several states, senior citizens have organized bus trips across the Canadian border so they can get their prescriptions filled at the lower price.
Woonsocket Sen. Roger Badeau, who sponsored the Senate bill, noted that last week in the U.S. Senate, Sens. Edward Kennedy and Thomas Daschle and Rep. Richard Gephardt introduced bills allowing the re-importation of Canadian drugs nationally.That irked Sen. Mary Parella, a Bristol Republican, who said Congress should be solving the problem of the high cost of prescription drugs on its own, rather than relying on shipping them across the border from Canada. "That really, really, really bothers me," Parella said.
But Democrat Sen. Joseph Polisena answered that "I don't think Congress is going to do anything. The pharmaceutical companies own the Congress."
The House and Senate have passed identical but separate bills. Each chamber will now pass the other's version and send both to Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, who has indicated he is willing to sign the proposal into law once he receives one bill that has passed in both chambers.
Jim Baron
04/30/2004
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