Taking Medication Options Away from Seniors Again?

President Bush last weekend called on Congress to pass legislation that would restrict the online sales of prescription drugs, but the president's request addresses a symptom and not the cause of one of the country's top medical problems...again. The majority of online medication buyers are not teens. They are middle to lower class seniors who can't afford US drug prices. Many U.S. residents, including many seniors and folks with chronic conditions, obtain prescription drugs from international sources not because they're scratching some itch for faraway places, but because "they can't afford U.S. drug prices." This legislation is nothing more then another attempt to ensure US Pharmacy's recieve all the monies they feel entitled to, whether our Seniors can afford them or not. They charge outragiously, and the prices keep going up. Since 2001 medication prices for Americans have gone up more then 50%. Those on medicare are having a hard enough time now, especially once they reach the so called "doughnut hole", where coverage lapse occurs and it's now out of pocket to these folks.

Until the U.S. can extend health coverage to everyone and limit drug prices to reasonable levels, many Americans have no choice but to seek the best possible deal for their medications, and the ability to purchase them at a reputable online pharmacy is an option, whether it's from Canada or another country that uses the same pharmaceutical makers as the US does. US lawmakers need to understand Internet drug sales because, straight up, you can't punish people for trying to make up for shortfalls of the U.S. health care system.
It should be a law that every congressmen live in the poor house, or sleep under a bridge for a night, or even go hungry for a day. Then maybe they wouldn't forget how hard it is to decide whether you get food or medication today.

Clearly there need to be safeguards to prevent people from purchasing potentially dangerous drugs without a prescription, the "obvious place to start" is in Canada, as so many people already shop for prescription drugs there. At the same time, U.S. and Canadian officials should negotiate a treaty that permits U.S. doctors to fax or electronically transfer prescriptions to Canadian pharmacies. This wouldn't necessarily solve the problem of uninsured Americans being unable to afford doctor visits, but it would allow seniors to get the medications they need.