Vermont Governor Encourages Seniors to Buy Prescription Drug in Canada

Responding to an appeals court ruling against Vermont's plan to expand Medicaid prescription drug discounts to seniors, Gov. Howard Dean (D) recommended Wednesday that Vermont residents obtain low-cost prescription drugs from Canada until the state can identify an alternate solution, the Burlington Free Press reports (Remsen/Zolper, Burlington Free Press, 6/14). On June 8, the appeals court ruled that HHS had "improperly" approved the program, which offered Medicare beneficiaries and younger adults with incomes up to 300% of the poverty level -- and who would not otherwise qualify for traditional Medicaid assistance -- access to discounted drug prices through the Medicaid program (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 6/11). Dean said that the 5,000 state residents who had signed up for the now-defunct plan would receive letters alerting them to MedicineAssist, one of two state programs that connects patients with Canadian pharmacies. Through MedicineAssist, physicians order and receive three-month supplies of drugs for their patients from two Canadian pharmacies. The other program, sponsored by the Central Vermont Council of Aging, organizes bus trips for patients to Canada, where Canadian physicians review patients' medical histories and rewrite their prescriptions to be filled at Canadian pharmacies.

A Short-Term Solution?
MedicineAssist CEO Elizabeth Wenner said the program could yield significant savings, noting that after six months, 145 program participants had reduced their drug spending from an estimated $81,000 to $21,000. But critics say Canadian purchases should be viewed as a "short term solution" and warned that the practice could "hurt local drugstores" in the long run. Dean said he would prefer that federal lawmakers add a prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program, but added that "since Congress has not seen fit to act on that, this turns out to be the best way to deal with it at this point" (Burlington Free Press, 6/14). Dean also suggested that drug price caps could be a solution, despite his "earlier resistance" to that idea. Price controls are also supported by state Senate leader Peter Shumlin (D) and a group of Progressive Party leaders, who held a Wednesday news conference to "announce their plans to propose price-control legislation next year" (Las Vegas Sun, 6/15).