The Food and Drug Administration has decided to allow Florida to import millions of dollars worth of medications from Canada at far lower prices than in the United States, overriding fierce decades-long objections from the pharmaceutical industry, according to a senior administration official.
The approval is a major policy shift for the United States, and supporters hope it will be a significant step forward in the long and largely unsuccessful effort to reign in drug prices. Individuals in the United States are allowed to buy directly from Canadian pharmacies, but states have long wanted to be able to purchase medicines in bulk for their Medicaid programs, government clinics and prisons from Canadian wholesalers.
Florida has estimated that it could save up to $150 million in its first year of the program, importing medicines that treat H.I.V., AIDS, diabetes, hepatitis C and psychiatric conditions. Other states have applied to the F.D.A. to set up similar programs.
Ah, so republicans fight tooth and nail to prevent the federal government from bargaining with drug companies to lower prices, but then they’re happy to try and import cheaper drugs from other countries that do have better price controls on medications, just so long as it’s going to their state budgets.
Queue “they’re taking our jobs” and “no one wants to work anymore”.
If you’re a government saying we can’t afford to cover healthcare within the country, but also looking to import healthcare from outside the country, then maybe the issue is that healthcare is too expensive and you should force Wall Street to care about better prices/care rather than better stakeholder returns.