If you're one of those people stuck paying for prescription drugs, here's some good news.
You can buy prescription drugs online from several Canadian pharmacies and save tremendous amounts of money - up to 50 percent or more. The pharmacies - Canadameds.com, www.The CanadianDrugstore.com and www.CanadaRX.net - are doing a booming business in the United States and in some cases are expanding to keep up with U.S. orders.
To get a sense of the savings, consider the price difference between two drugs, the diabetes medicine Actos and the prostate cancer drug Casodex. I compared prices at the U.S. pharmacy site www.drugstore.com with the Canadameds.com site.
At the U.S. site, 90 tablets of Casodex cost $1,022, while at the Canadian site, they cost $414 - a savings of more than $600, or nearly 60 percent.
Ninety tablets of Actos costs $423 in the United States, compared with $284 in Canada - a savings of $139, or 33 percent.
You'll have to pay shipping charges, of course, which can be up to $18 per package.
But even with those charges, the savings are substantial, so much so that they may spell the difference between being able to afford medication or not.
That is the good news. Here's the bad news: Even though countless people get their prescriptions this way, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not made it clear whether it's legal. (No state laws cover buying prescriptions online from Canada, according to the Texas Attorney General's office.)
The FDA notes that "generally it will be illegal to import drugs" from foreign online pharmacies.
That means that buying prescription drugs - perfectly legal prescription drugs - from online pharmacies is considered illegal, even though it is
legal to cross the border and buy the drugs in person.
When you buy drugs online from Canadian pharmacies, you either have them shipped directly to you or to your doctor or other health care professional.
Here the law is even muddier, but the FDA says that under some interpretations of the law, it's not illegal.
In either case, the issue is moot - you'll be able to buy the drugs online without fear of consequences.
The FDA says that it has never gone after individuals who have bought prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies and has no plans to do so.
Congress and the White House have even gotten into the act. Congress passed a law allowing drugs to be imported into the United States from some foreign countries by pharmacies and wholesalers.
However, both the Clinton and Bush administrations have issued regulations blocking the law, so the issue may end up before Congress again.
Still, the FDA insists that it will not go after U.S. citizens who try to save money this way.
While each of the three Canadian online pharmacies offers savings on prescription drugs, they operate differently. For each, you'll have to
provide a prescription - you won't be allowed to buy medicines without one.
And you'll usually have to fill out a medical form, or have your doctor fill one out, before you can order.
At Canadameds.com, you must sign a disclaimer (it can be signed online by clicking on an "I agree" button) and fill out a form including your
family medical history before you can order prescriptions.
You'll then need to fax a prescription to the site or have the site contact your doctor to get a copy.
Because of Canadian laws, a medical professional from the site has to examine the form and prescription before your medicine can be sent.
At some sites, the prescription will be sent to you; at others, it will be sent to your doctor or pharmacy. In all cases, you'll pay by credit card.
Keep in mind that on top of shipping costs, you should budget time for prescriptions to arrive.
For example, at Canadameds.com, shipping is $12 per package for U.S. residents and you should allow 21 days for delivery.
Shipping is $5 per prescription for U.S. residents using www.The CanadianDrugstore.com, and delivery will also take 21 days.
At www.CanadaRX.net, you can't order the prescription yourself. Instead, a medical professional, such as a doctor, nurse or pharmacist, has to do the
ordering, although the prescription can be sent directly to you. Shipping is $9.99 per item - that's Canadian dollars, which translates into about $6.50 U.S. at current rates.
So ordering a prescription online from a Canadian pharmacy may be a bit more trouble than driving to your local pharmacy. But considering the savings, it may be worth the effort.
Preston Gralla is the author of 17 books, including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Shopping, and is executive editor for ZDNet. His column
appears biweekly in The Dallas Morning News.
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