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The Savvy Senior
by Carol Martin
Last week, I talked
about Congress' idea to
allow seniors to buy
their drugs from Can-
ada.
This week, here's
the position of United
Seniors: There are
ways for consumers to
immediately lower the
costs of prescription
medicines.
The
Gutknecht-Emanuel bill,
H.R. 2427, is a bad idea
at a bad time for mil-
lions of Americans who
need access to medi-
cines and affordable
choices now.
Too many politicians
are encouraging more
unelected bureaucrats,
more intrusive regula-
tions, and non-solutions
like "reimportatation of
drugs from Canada."
How can we imme-
diately lower the cost of
prescription medicines?
1. Immediately end
the Lawyer Tax that is
on every bottle of pre-
scription
medicines
manufactured and sold
in the U.S.A..
The insane, but very
real threat of massive,
limitless lawsuits must
now be priced into
every prescription medi-
cine in America. This
threat forces every US
manufacturer to raise
the price of their medi-
cines to address the
potentially devastating
threat of lawsuits.
Ending the Lawyers
Tax could immediately
provide a massive dis-
count on every prescrip-
tion medicine in Amer-
ica.
2. Immediately re-
move unnecessary fed-
eral regulations that arti-
ficially create intermina-
ble delays in the ap-
proval process of break-
through, life-saving, and
innovative medicines.
Today, it costs $800
million just to bring a
new drug to the market-
place. Costs like that
reduce
competition,
which would lower
prices, and also create
barriers to medical inno-
vation.
3. Expand citizen
awareness about al-
ready-existing deep dis-
counts on prescription
drugs available in the
U.S.A.. Survey data
shows that Americans
CAN find discounts in
the U.S. comparable to
"reimported" prices. It
appears enough con-
sumers do not recog-
nize these discounts.
We MUST broaden the
awareness of our citi-
zens about competitive
pricing today.
The fake solution of
"reimportation of drugs"
from other countries
would only do damage
and harm.
(c) 2003 DBR Media, Inc.
Trivia Time
by Walter Branch
1. How many coronets
followed the 76 trom-
bones in "The Music
Man"?
2. What kind of board
was hot in 1961 and re-
kindled four years later?
3. What make of piano
did Liberace play on his
1950s TV show?
4. What Greek letter was
incorporated in the green
ecology flag?
5. What song did Joan
Baez sing to end the first
evening's concert at
Woodstock? Answers: 1.
110; 2. The skateboard; 3.
Baldwin; 4. Theta; 5. "We
Shall Overcome.”
(c) 2003 DBR Media, Inc.
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, August 13, 2003