The recently passed medicare prescription drug bill must be repealed. Should this plan go forward, major parts of medicare will be privatized by 2010. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel who voted against the bill, stated that “it will not strengthen medicare and does not responsibly address the need for prescription drug coverage.”

The structure of the drug benefit is confusing. The so-called “doughnut hole” results in seniors paying 100% of their drug costs while continuing to fork out monthly premiums. The bill prohibits the government from negotiating with drug companies to reduce prices through volume purchasing. Many retirees fear that their former employers may drop coverage once federal coverage is in place. The bill just happened to contain a gift of $68 billion in tax-free payments to employers to prevent this from occurring.

While these aspects and others have caused great concern, the result of this measure has been to add substantially to an already impressive array of debt accumulated by this administration.

A more responsible and cost-effective alternative would be to address the needs of seniors without prescription drug coverage, address rural health care reimbursement formulas & preventative health care measures, while instituting some form of means testing relative to a prescription drug benefit. I fully support the importation of prescription drugs from Canada , New Zealand and Great Britain . I support the continued operation of Business offices that assist seniors and others in the faxing or transmittal of prescriptions to the aforementioned countries in order to obtain mail order prescription drugs. In my own family, prescription medications are obtained via the internet from Canada , saving about 40% over the best retail prices available locally. The medication is exactly the same brand and packaging as I would obtain from my local retail pharmaceutical outlet.

The Mail order prescription facilitating business should not be impeded by government agencies in the performance of their non-clinical role, of faxing or otherwise transmitting, written prescriptions to the countries listed above; for filling and subsequent direct mail order delivery to the patient.

As your representative in the fifth congressional district I will initiate as well as support legislation to protect these businesses from unwarranted governmental interference.

John Russell, MS/ARNP (Acute Care), MBA, Health Systems Management