Seniors call for action to lower
prescription drug costs

AFT joins rally on Capitol Hill

Senior activists along with members of Congress, AFT staffers and other unionists rallied on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24 to demand a vote on a bipartisan measure that would allow lower-cost prescription drugs to be reimported from Canada and other industrialized nations.

The Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act (S.2328), which has 31 Democratic and Republican co-sponsors, including Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) who addressed the rally audience, would allow prescription drugs deemed safe by U.S. regulators to be imported from industrialized nations at the lower prices. Members of the House of Representatives passed a drug reimportation bill in July 2003, but the Senate bill is being blocked by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

“The Senate has an opportunity to take a giant step forward in lowering prescription drug costs,” Daschle said. “All across South Dakota, I hear from people who are outraged that they pay as much as 60 percent more than what people in Canada pay for the same medication. It is time that this bipartisan legislation gets a vote in the Senate so that our seniors and all consumers get relief they desperately need from skyrocketing prescription drug costs.”

Helen Clark, a former labor and delivery nurse from Kennebunk, Maine, and a member of the AFL-CIO’s Alliance for Retired Americans, was one of many seniors in attendance who has taken frequent trips to Canada to buy lower-cost medication.

“I’m not an outlaw, I’m a nurse and a grandmother,” said Clark. “I make choices to make ends meet.”