Byron Dorgan's office just sent out a press release noting that Obama supports the Dorgan-Snowe bill to allow importation of "lower-priced, Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs from other countries," and they expect passage to be quick and clean. They're probably right. But it's always worth remembering what's embedded in the drug importation -- or, as some call it, "reimportation" -- idea. What the bill allows you to do, quite simply, is go to Canada and pick up a pack of Lipitor. But Lipitor is made by an American company in an American factory. Canada imports the drug. In theory, that should impose the extra cost on Canada and it should be cheaper in America. But it isn't. Canada has a national health care system that bargains down drug prices. They are so effective at it that it is literally cheaper for American consumers to buy back American-produced pharmaceuticals that drug companies have already sold at a profit to Canada than it is to buy from the producers directly. It's inane. And allowing drug reimportation does not solve this problem. It dramatizes it.
