By Crystal D. Swann
August 7, 2006

As part of the $31.7 billion Department of Homeland Security (S.5441) spending bill, the Senate added language that would allow Americans to import Canadian prescription drugs legally. The amendment offered by Senator David Vitter (LA), would create a loophole within the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulations barring the importation of prescription drugs.

The amendment would prohibit Customs and Border Protection officers from stopping people with a doctor’s prescription for an FDA-approved from bringing the drugs into the U.S. from Canada. Similar language has been backed by the House of Representatives. The likely scenario, Congressional aides warn, is that the language will be stripped from the bills in conference as they have been in previous years.

The argument remains that, while most seniors have some type of prescription drug coverage, thanks in part to the enactment of the Medicare Part D program, under that same program a senior coverage is suspended once that senior has spent $2,250 on prescriptions in a year. The coverage does not resume until the senior prescription costs reaches $5,100 per year. Addressing this gap in coverage is a major challenge for advocates and policymakers.

The Conference of Mayors policy, adopted in 2004, supports the enactment of legislation that would allow U.S. citizens legal access to safe, affordable prescription medications from Canada, and to take other fundamental steps to bring about the reasonable pricing of prescription drugs in the U.S.