9. Americans are content with their current prescription drug coverage and the affordability of drugs in the U.S.

• . It's no secret that the new Medicare Part D prescription drug program leaves a lot to be desired for American seniors. For 6 years, Canadian pharmacies have been a safety-net for American patients who struggle to afford their prescription medications. (December 22, 2005 - PharmaLive)


• Pressure from voters and interest groups such as AARP has re-energized congressional efforts aimed at making importation of medicines legal in the United States. (September 20, 2005 - Usinfo.state.gov)


• Three in five (60%) U.S. adults are not very confident or not at all confident that drug companies will publish any information they have about the side effects of any of their drugs as soon as they have that information. (PharmaLive - January 18, 2005)


• Almost 70 percent of the 1,400 people surveyed by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health in November 2004 said that allowing citizens to order drugs from Canada would make medicines more affordable without sacrificing safety or quality. (September 7, 2005 - ConsumerReports.org)


• Nearly one-quarter of respondents in a poll conducted by the University of Connecticut said they had been unable to purchase a drug in the last year because of its high price. Fifty four percent of respondents believe drug companies make too much money. (July 29, 2005 - The Day)


• Across the nation, the number of uninsured is 45 million and rising, and 16 million lack enough insurance to cover all their medical bills. (July 11, 2005, Billings Gazette)


• Allow Americans to import drugs from Canada. Congress failed to give Americans the go-ahead to obtain less-expensive drugs from other countries such as Canada. (September 24, 2005 - DesMoinesRegister.com)


• More federal solutions to rising drug costs are clearly needed. In the meantime, government officials should do what they can to give Americans the best information to make the best choices available. (August 27, 2005 - PoughkeepsieJournal.com)


• Voters and members of Congress are frustrated over high prescription-drug costs, and by the end of the year that discontent could inspire a new push for laws that would permit the importation of cheaper medicines from abroad. (August 29, 2005 - MyrtleBeachOnline.com)


• Two years after Springfield's Michael Albano became the first U.S. mayor to import Canadian drugs, about 10,000 municipal employees from the state have opted to do the same. More than one-quarter of Massachusetts' 150,000 municipal employees may be participating by year's end, according to a health-benefits consultant. (June 29, 2005 - Bloomberg)


• According to AARP's analysis of 150 popular products, the prices of brand-name drugs have risen an average of 35 percent since 1999. That's almost three times higher than overall inflation during that time. (June 24, 2005 - MassLive)


• Health spending by privately insured Americans rose 8.2 percent in 2004, virtually the same increase as the previous year, according to analysts at the Center for Studying Health System Change. (June 21, 2005 - Washington Post)


• For the eight straight year the growth in medical costs far outpaced the growth of wages, by nearly four times in 2004, a trend that suggests more Americans will be unable to afford their health insurance. (June 21, 2005 - Washington Post)


• The Seniors Coalition (TSC), the nation's leading free-market senior advocacy organization with more than 4 million members, extended an olive branch to 221 members of the House of Representatives who recently affixed their signature to a letter sent to Speaker Dennis Hastert in which they called for a vote on the issue of prescription drug importation. (June 22, 2005 - US Newswire)


• Acquiring drugs from other countries has worked in the European Union, a sign it could work here in the United States with Canada and the European Union, according to an AARP report. (June 23, 2005 - The Washington Times)


• Opinion polls indicate that the American public is overwhelmingly in support of opening up foreign markets for the purchase of prescription drugs. It seems that only the prescription drug industry and the Bush administration oppose a free market economy in this instance. (Daily Southtown - May 27, 2005)


• The amount of money spent on deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance has increased each year over the past half-decade to an average $2,035 this year for a family of four, from $1,480 in 2001, according to a first-ever nationwide study by actuarial and consulting firm Milliman. (New York Daily News - May 26, 2005)


• Haverhill may join a growing number of Massachusetts’s communities that have turned Canada for cheaper prescription drugs for their municipal employees. (Boston Globe - May 22, 2005)


• Nearly a third of all Americans are having difficulty paying for their prescription drugs, and more than 30 percent of sick adults report they fail to fill their prescriptions because of the cost. (San Francisco Chronicle ? May 1, 2005)


• A new analysis of government data shows that millions of uninsured adults in the U.S. suffer with chronic illness and have medical needs that are unmet. The analysis documents that millions of these chronically ill adults forego needed medical care or prescription drugs due to cost, leaving them at serious risk for increased health problems. (PRNewswire ? May 2, 2005)


• An overwhelming 9 out of 10 Americans believe that healthcare costs have worsened over the past 5 years. (NOP World Health - January 3, 2005)


• According to a national survey, 18 percent of older American adults with chronic conditions such as heart disease and depression skip some of their prescription medicines because of out of pocket cost pressures, and 14 percent do so at least every month. (Senior Journal October 7, 2004)


• Prescription drug spending is increasing faster than any other health care expense. (Independent Media TV – October 4, 2004)


• Rockville, Maryland; the county that is home to the Food and Drug Administration took a first step yesterday toward buying prescription drugs from Canada, despite FDA warnings that such a practice would be illegal.


• More than two–thirds of Illinois voters approve of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan to buy prescription drugs from the United Kingdom. (The Associated Press September 28, 2004)


• According to a national survey, 18 percent of older American adults with chronic conditions such as heart disease and depression skip some of their prescription medicines because of out-of-pocket cost pressures, and 14 percent do so at least every month. (Senior Journal October 7, 2004)


• Prescription drug spending is increasing faster than any other health care expense. (Independent Media TV October 4, 2004)


• Rockville, Maryland; the county that is home to the Food and Drug Administration took a first step yesterday toward buying prescription drugs from Canada, despite FDA warnings that such a practice would be illegal.


• According to a study by the Center for Health System Change, one in three privately insured, chronically ill, low-income individuals are from families that struggle to pay medical bills. In such families, 10 percent of patients opted not to receive care, 30 percent delayed care and 43 percent didn't fill a prescription because of the expense. (Associated Press September 23, 2004)


• Since 2000 the number of Americans without health insurance has risen from 39.8 million to 45 million. (WebMD Medical News September 22, 2004)


• Faced with stratospheric increases in prescription drug costs, a majority of Montgomery County Council members say they are ready to join a growing nationwide rebellion against the Food and Drug Administration's ban on reimported drugs by giving county employees and their dependents participate. (Baltimore Sun September 21, 2004)


• More than two-thirds of Illinois voters approve of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan to buy prescription drugs from the United Kingdom. (The Associated Press - September 28, 2004)


• About 78% of Americans want to place limits on drug prices, according to a survey of 810 adults June 527 by Stony Brook University in New York. (Bloomberg News August 2, 2004)


• A Harris poll shows 84% of Americans favor laws to permit reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada. (Mercury News July 30, 2004)


• AARP, released a nationwide survey on July 14, 2004 indicating that four of every five older Americans support a change in the law to allow importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and other nations. AARP is a 35 million member advocacy group for Americans age 50 and older. (South Florida SunSentinel July 14, 2004)


• A poll of 1,267 people released by the advocacy group AARP found that 79 percent of people older than 50 said reimportation should be legalized.(Washington Bureau July 15, 2004)


• One in seven Americans has no health insurance. (The Hartford Courant July 20, 2004)


• The average senior has an annual income of $14,251. Seniors and people with disabilities are estimated to spend $1.8 TRILLION for their medications over the next 10 years. (Alliance for Retired Americans)


• According to a recent survey, onethird of Americans report that paying for medications is a problem. (Boca Raton News July 22, 2004)


• According to the results of a new Harris interactive poll 81% of Americans think that the amount of money chronically ill patients have to pay for their prescription drugs, including generics and brand name drugs, is a greater financial burden for patients in the U.S. than in Canada. (PR Newswire August 18, 2004)


• Elderly Americans who exhaust their insurance coverage for prescription drugs often stop or cut back on their medications because of high prices, says a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Bloomberg August 24, 2004)


• In the United States, about onethird of the population is paying for all or almost all of their prescription drugs, in other words with no assistance from Medicare or any type of insurance programs. (September 3, 2004 Pantagraph)


• A Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that older and disabled Americans strongly support proposals to allow prescription drug imports and to let the government negotiate prices of medicines. (September 3, 2004 Associated Press)

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