Stabenow takes seniors to Canada to buy medicine

DETROIT (AP) - U.S. Rep. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) bused 15 senior citizens to Canada yesterday to prove they could buy their prescription drugs for less money than they could in the United States.

Stabenow says it's time to reform Medicare to include the cost of medications because costly prescriptions are forcing some senior citizens to go without their medicines. About 35 percent of seniors do not have insurance to cover medications, she said.

"What we need to be doing is making sure that we're modernizing Medicare to cover the way health care is provided to them," she said.

Her group saved more than $800 by buying the medicine in Canada, a 53 percent difference from what they would have paid in the United States.

Alice Tirakian said she spends almost $2,000 a year on medications and saved almost $450 for a month's worth of prescriptions.

Stabenow cautioned that this is not something anyone could do. A Canadian physician was required to write the prescriptions.

Dr. Thomas Bernard met them at the pharmacy after having received the prescriptions beforehand.

"If Medicare were operating as an insurance cover for seniors, they would negotiate a discount for seniors," she said.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham said he supports providing help to seniors below the poverty line and middle-income seniors that are having a hard time paying for their medications. Stabenow is challenging Abraham for his seat in November.

"The Medicare system needs to be reformed," Abraham spokesman Joe Davis said. "We think a bipartisan effort to reform Medicare is the best way to go."

Canada's prices for medicines are lower because the government negotiates a discount with the drug companies, Stabenow said.

Stabenow said drug companies have driven up the prices of drugs through marketing and advertising directly to the consumer. The companies also are blaming the increase on research and development when they are already allowed a tax break, she said.

Jeff Trewhitt, spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, agreed that the resolution to the problem is for Congress to expand drug coverage under an improved Medicare program.

However, he said their member companies, who are about two-thirds of the research based industry, estimated spending $24 billion on research and develop last year, and only $8.3 billion for promotion and marketing.

"The cost of research and development has surged six fold over the last 15 years," Trewhitt said.