County may weigh in on drug debate

By David Steinkraus

Sunday, November 9, 2003 12:56 AM CST

RACINE COUNTY - The idea behind the County Board resolution is saving money - yours.

On Tuesday supervisors are expected to receive the resolution, which advocates buying prescription medications from Canadian companies. It's what private citizens have been doing for years because Canadian pharmacies charge about half of U.S. prices. Wisconsin is one of several states flirting with the idea of Canadian

purchases.

Supervisor Daniel Sharkozy, Racine, who is sponsoring the resolution, said he wants to put some grass roots support behind Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle. Earlier this week Doyle met with a Canadian pharmacy association representative to explore whether the state could buy drugs from Canada.

"Perhaps we can take back our health care system from the high-priced lobbyists that have been holding (up) the people for this cost," Sharkozy said.

His parochial school taught that if you know of wrongdoing and don't act you're an accomplice, Sharkozy said, and so if the government doesn't act to reduce health care costs, it becomes an accomplice.

In 1999, the county spent about $1.4 million on pharmaceuticals for the employees and retirees covered under its self-funded health insurance plan, said Doug Stansil, the county finance director. In 2002, the county spent $2.6 million. That's in increase of 86 percent in three years. During the same period, dental costs increased from $715,000 to $717,000.

Representatives of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration visited Doyle this week, too, because federal law bans the importation of drugs from other countries. FDA officials say drugs from other countries may not be manufactured to U.S. standards.

If you look at the history of the Canada's universal health care system, Sharkozy said, it began when the cost of the previous system became unbearable. "Now what do we do here, wait to go bankrupt?"

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