MR. HALL: I know a business owner in northern New Hampshire who was on vacation in Spain last year for about three weeks. While he was there he had to buy refills for prescription drugs — brand-name drugs. And he discovered in buying those drugs that he could buy his refills there for $600 less than he could by them here in New Hampshire. So since then, he’s said he is going to take a trip over to Spain and get his vacation paid for to buy his drugs[.]
If only all those uninsured folks would just buy their prescriptions while on holiday in Spain.
It seems pretentious to think the 40 million plus Americans with no healthcare insurance can travel to get their prescriptions. Classic example of people, most of whom, have never experienced living week-to-week, paycheck-to-paycheck.
On a side note: I was in Bulgaria in March of 2005. Just before leaving for my trip, my physician prescribed Augmentin (a powerful anti-biotic). When I went to fill the script, the pharmacy wanted more than $120 for the pills. After I got to Bulgaria, I checked with the pharmacy and they wanted about $20 for the exact same thing, without a prescription I might add. Likewise, OTC omeprazole was pennies on the dollar compared to Prilosec here.
Just to clarify — Mr. Hall used the story above to ask what the candidates would do about healthcare.