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Amid a flurry of national proposals to bring exorbitant U.S. drug prices in line with other countries’ charges, one Utah insurer has a different option for patients:
Pay them to go to Mexico.
PEHP, which covers 160,000 public employees and family members, is offering plane tickets to San Diego, transportation to Tijuana, and a $500 cash payout to patients who need certain expensive drugs for multiple sclerosis, cancer and autoimmune disorders.
“That money is pretty small in comparison to the difference between U.S. prices and Mexico prices,” said Travis Tolley, clinical operations director for PEHP.
The insurer rolled out its “pharmacy tourism” option this fall in response to state legislation requiring state employees’ insurance plans to offer “savings rewards,” or cash incentives, to patients who choose cheaper providers.
PEHP is offering pharmacy tourism benefits for about a dozen drugs for which the price disparity between countries is vast. For example, Avonex, which treats MS, costs about $6,700 for a 28-day supply in the U.S., but about $2,200 through PEHP’s contracted clinic in Tijuana.
For three months’ supply — the maximum allowed under the program — the savings of $13,500 more than covers the $500 reward and transportation, typically less than $300 per person.
[...] Patients who participate will fly to San Diego, be driven through a priority lane at the border crossing and arrive at a clinic, which PEHP director Chet Loftis described as “top-notch,” comparable to a Mayo or Cleveland clinic in the United States.
Medical tourism is not new; PEHP itself has previously offered coverage for out-of-country medical procedures. But without the cash incentives, patients haven’t used that option, Loftis said. Now that clients are eligible for up to $3,900 a year in reward payments for trips to Tijuana for procedures and drugs, Loftis said he hopes more will participate.
Source: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/10/28/fight-high-drug-prices/
(Score: 3, Insightful) by urza9814 on Tuesday October 30 2018, @05:50PM (8 children)
Sure, they're the same drugs, but they're still illegal to import. Doesn't matter if you're doing it personally, on behalf of a company, or a company importing in bulk. It's still illegal. And this company is paying people to violate that law.
If the law is so goddamn broken, FIX IT instead of just looking the other way when certain privileged companies violate those laws for profit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Tuesday October 30 2018, @06:33PM (7 children)
See my comments about brinksmanship and our bought congress.
In particular talk to the congress critters that don't want single payer or the ACA because "free market" and then don't want the free market either because.....well, they've carefully avoided actually answering that question.
Basically, we have a congress that wants to give us the worst possible solution and since it is unwilling to bend on the issue we are now seeing open defiance.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by urza9814 on Tuesday October 30 2018, @06:49PM (1 child)
I'd feel a lot better about that if it wasn't large corporations bribing individual citizens to be the ones doing the defiance. If something goes wrong it's not going to be the CEO responsible for this decision who ends up in prison -- it's going to be the individual citizens they paid off as drug mules. If the company wants to defy an unjust law they should do it themselves.
These insurance companies are no better than our "bought congress" (in fact, they're often the ones doing the buying), and I don't expect their actions to fix anything other than their own profit margins...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sjames on Tuesday October 30 2018, @07:15PM
I doubt any individual is going to have any problems here. The last thing the GOP wants is to shine a bright light on this issue. Also, this is the insurance plan provided as a benefit to Utah State employees and it has the backing of the state government. So any light that shines there would also obliquely bring state's rights into the picture. It's a political powder keg and nobody wants to risk lighting a match within a thousand miles of it.
I would prefer to see a sane actual solution to the cost of healthcare come out of the federal government but they have made it perfectly clear that they would rather we die than do that. So here we are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 30 2018, @07:09PM (4 children)
You have the congress that you voted for! Don't forget that as you reelect 95% of them every time the opportunity to fix the problem comes around.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday October 30 2018, @08:01PM (3 children)
You are aware that I don't get to vote for all of them, arent you? I voted for the ones that support single payer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31 2018, @12:01AM (2 children)
You are aware that you are a collective, and as a collective, the failure is yours, not the system, or anything else.
(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Wednesday October 31 2018, @01:43AM (1 child)
Other than as a collection of various single cells, I am but one individual with one vote. Voting helps, but there most certainly ARE systemic issues. It's not a coincidence that the leading candidates for a given office are generally a rogue's gallery of more of the same. It's not random chance that potential candidates who aren't part of the rogue's gallery couldn't get air time if they killed someone on camera.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31 2018, @04:12AM
Free choice, real or myth? That's all I want to know...