At last, a legal way to get cheaper prescription drugs
April 2005
For years our elected leaders have debated state programs that begin with the bright promise of reducing prescription drug costs, only to end up expending large amounts of time, energy and money in return for questionable results. In the world of politics, what do about rising drug prices is hotly debate. Yet amid all the controversy, most people don't know that pharmaceutical companies are making hundreds of their drugs available to low and moderate income people at no charge or at steeply reduced prices. A new website, Rx Help for Washington (on the web at www.rxhelpforwa.org) is helping thousands of people lower their monthly drug costs. The site lists over 1,800 medications and connects to 275 different drug plans, all designed to help ordinary people afford the medicines they need to stay healthy.
Unlike most government programs, using this service is easy. The website walks you through a quick, four-step process. First, you go the section for patients. Next you type in the kind of medications you are taking. The website even helps you find the correct spelling. Third, the site presents a simple 10-question survey, asking things like age, gender and income level. Lastly, the site conducts an automatic search and produces the program name, address and phone number for the company that offers your prescription medicine for free or at a lower price.
Using the website is free, there is no membership or enrollment fee, and all information is completely confidential. The site keeps no record of who has visited and you can’t get put on a junk mail list or marketer’s call list.
The website is a clear success. So far Rx Help for Washington has received inquiries from 170,000 people, more than ten times the number who have tried the state government’s hotline. Of these, almost 100,000 have qualified for free or discounted prescription drugs. The service is private, so it doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime. It is 100% voluntary, so people can decide for themselves whether it makes sense for them. Dozens of non-profit organizations, like the American Heart Association and the Arthritis Foundation, are helping spread the word about this new service.
The success of the site stands in stark contrast to efforts by the state to accomplish the same goal. Two years ago the legislature passed with great fanfare SB 6088, a bill that fostered high hopes of getting drug costs under control. It created a government discount card for seniors. The program is so cumbersome and unattractive that so far a grand total of twenty-five people have signed up for it. The bill created a state-run hotline in an effort to inform people about available discount drug programs. After more than a year in operation the service has fielded only 15,000 calls, and even those who do call are not told whether they are actually eligible for a drug discount.
Many people argue the answer lies up north. Canadians get cheap drugs because of government-imposed price controls and some Americans figure, well, why can't we get in on the deal? First, it is illegal. Second, the FDA says it can't guarantee the safety of drugs coming from another country. Canadian health officials say they only oversee the safety of drugs used by Canadians, not those for export. Drugs bought off "Canadian" websites may actually come from Iran, Argentina, South Africa or Brazil. International criminals use Canada as a way to tap into the lucrative American market, often with counterfeit or contaminated pills. No one wants to hear the chilling words a patient in San Francisco received from his doctor after experiencing a bad reaction to one drug; "You may have gotten some of the fake stuff."
No, the solution to high drug costs will not be found in another country, or in top-down, centralized government programs. And while free services like Rx Help for Washington are not the total solution, private initiatives like this one point in the right direction. The long-term answer lies in open competition, consumer choice and market-based pricing. That is the surest and fairest way to provide all Americans with safe, effective and affordable prescription drugs.