A State With A Plan

Timothy B. McCall, M.D.

Vermont, like many other states, is grappling with how to handle escalating expenditures for prescription drugs. But according to Marketplace Medical Commentator Dr. Timothy McCall, the state that nominated 79 year old retired dairy farmer Fred Tuttle for the U.S. Senate might have the Yankee ingenuity to solve the problem.

Vermonters don’t like it one bit when outsiders try to take advantage of them. Just ask Jack McMullen, the odds-on favorite for last year’s Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. The carpet-bagging millionaire from Boston’s campaign pretty much self-distructed when Fred Tuttle asked him in a debate on Vermont Public Radio: “How many teats on a heifer, Jack?” [delivered in an authentic fake Vermont accent]

Six was not the correct answer.

Now Vermont has a plan to outfox the giant multinational pharmaceutical companies. The idea, proposed by state senator Jan Backus is--for the purposes of purchasing prescription drugs only--to become a subprovince of Canada. Canadians pay so much less for drugs that many Vermonters already buy theirs over the border in Quebec.

Canada, like other countries with national health programs, gets lower drug prices from the manufacturers because a single entity negotiates prices for a huge population. In the U.S. only large HMOs and pharmacy chains are big enough to cut deals with drug companies and there’s no guarantee they’ll pass the saving on to consumers

That explains why Americans, according to the health research group Public Citizen, often pay twice as much for drugs as people in other countries. In fact, it’s cheaper to buy drugs manufactured in the U.S. just about anywhere else.

The irony is that if the U.S. bought its drugs collectively we’d have the power to negotiate a better deal than anyone—and take a giant step toward reducing the fastest growing area of our health care budget

Of course, some people make a lot of money off the exorbitant prices we’re all paying for drugs and they seem to have the ears of politicians

Except perhaps in Vermon

Whatever the feasibility of Vermont’s plan, it seems fitting that it’s people like Fred Tuttle who’d benefit most from cheaper drug prices. According to the New York Times, he’s “flat broke,” has survived three heart attacks, prostate cancer, borderline diabetes and has two bum knees from decades of milking cow

A lot of Vermonters would like nothing more than to help out plain folks like Fred, especially if by doing so they got to stick to some big shots from out-of-state. Ey-yup

Dr. Timothy McCall spends most summers in Craftsbury Vermont. He insists he has no plans to seek elective office.

Cherry Picking in HMOs

Return to Marketplace Commentaries