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Prescription Health Care Essay

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The cost of prescription drugs in America has risen to the level that most Americans could not afford them with out the help of an insurance plan. The greedy and capitalistic pharmaceutical companies rely on the United States to fund the future development of drugs with skyrocketing prices and enormous margins. Recently the issue has extended into the mainstream political arena, thanks in part to the new Medicare bill(2). With the push by congress for the importation of drugs from foreign sources, regardless of the potential long and short term consequences, the time to vocally support health care reform is upon the American public. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates every substance intended for human consumption, with …show more content…

In this situation the drugs were originally manufactured in the United States or an FDA approved facility. The danger to the end user or patient is simply not knowing where the drugs came from to begin with. This is where the FDA feels the patient could ingest either weak, over potent or counterfeit drugs with potentially deadly side effects. Many on-line Canadian pharmacies have actual drugs imported from U.S. sources and some do not. As long as the consumer can find a reputable and licensed Canadian pharmacy that has a strong Internet presence there is no real danger of impure or counterfeit drugs(2). Several top FDA officials have testified to Congress regarding the importation of drugs from foreign sources. Their conclusion has been consistently, the burden this would place on the director of the FDA would be unfair(4). The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CIDER) has attempted to evaluate the potential for regulation of such drugs, with the conclusion that regulation would be extremely costly and nearly impossible. The main reason the task would be difficult would be the need to test every pill, vial, or suppository that entered the United States. Since the drug is generally destroyed in the process the consumer would never receive their prescription. The position of the FDA is, and should be to protect the American public. However during my

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