Prescription Drug prices are making retirement impossibly difficult for many senior citizens.

Prescription Drug prices are making raising a family impossibly difficult for many parents.

So who loves you? Wal-Mart and Target or your elected Unites States government?

Yesterday, first Wal-Mart and then Target announced that they would cut generic Prescription Drug prices to under $5 for a monthly supply. Is this love by Wal-Mart and Target? Before you answer, let me give you some information.

#1. It is not costing Wal-Mart and Target anything to do this.

#2. The US government could have done it with Medicare's Rx Drug program, but specifically made it illegal to do so.

Let me explain #1 first.

I have a Prescription Drug plan as part of my retirement package from x-employer. I get Prescription Drugs at about 75% or more below retail in 3 month supplies by mail-order. It costs my x-employer just about nothing to give this benefit. WHY? Because, they buy Prescription Drug doses by the million or billion. They negotiate with each pharmaceutical company for reduced prices and pass them onto us. So when I order a three month supply of Celebrex, I am getting it for about the cost my x-employer paid for it.

Now about #2.

When a Medicare recipient gets a drug through the Medicare Rx drug plan and he pays 60% of the retail cost, he is paying 2 and half times as much as I would for the same Rx and you (and me), the tax-payers are paying the other 40%. The federal government screwed both the Medicare recipients and the tax-payers by putting a clause into the Medicare Rx law that states that the government can not negotiate Rx prices with the pharmaceutical companies. Now the government wants to reduce the already paltry Medicare Rx benefits because they are costing the government too much money.

The reason Canada has inexpensive Rx drugs is the same reason that my Rx plan has low prices. Negotiate to purchase in quantity and resell at prices based on that low purchase price. It is also the same reason that Wal-Mart and Target are able to offer these low prices.

So I guess there are only two conclusions to be reached.

Either Wal-Mart and Target love you more than your government does

or

Wal-Mart and Target are smarter than your government.

My conclusion:

The government cares more about big business than about you.

My drug plan carrier is Green Shield. For any prescription I pay 5 dollars. It used to be 35 cents but the company raised this to 5 dollars during contract negotiations a couple of contracts ago. The plan has saved me a fortune over the years. I am being treated for depression, something that runs in my family, and am on a raft of drugs for this as well as something for cholesterol and something else for incipient osteoporosis. The drug plan also permits my GP to prescribe high-tech antibiotics whenever I do have an infection.

The fact that we have universal health care up here in Canada has also saved my butt. My GP is comfortable sending me off for tests in order to ensure that none of these drugs have adverse side-effects.

My drug plan carrier is Green Shield. For any prescription I pay 5 dollars. It used to be 35 cents but the company raised this to 5 dollars during contract negotiations a couple of contracts ago. The plan has saved me a fortune over the years. I am being treated for depression, something that runs in my family, and am on a raft of drugs for this as well as something for cholesterol and something else for incipient osteoporosis. The drug plan also permits my GP to prescribe high-tech antibiotics whenever I do have an infection.

The fact that we have universal health care up here in Canada has also saved my butt. My GP is comfortable sending me off for tests in order to ensure that none of these drugs have adverse side-effects.

According to the politicians here in Florida, you people in Canada really have it bad. In the USA, they claim, only about 45,000,000 people go without health insurance, but in Canada, everyone has second rate health care.

They tell me that 45,000,000 people doing without is a small price to pay so that the other 250,000,000 can have the wonderful capitalistic medical system provided in the USA.

According to the politicians here in Florida, you people in Canada really have it bad. In the USA, they claim, only about 45,000,000 people go without health insurance, but in Canada, everyone has second rate health care.

They tell me that 45,000,000 people doing without is a small price to pay so that the other 250,000,000 can have the wonderful capitalistic medical system provided in the USA.

The politicians in Florida told you that Bush won the election, too. I'd watch out for those people, if I were you.

The politicians in Florida told you that Bush won the election, too. I'd watch out for those people, if I were you.

I live in BuSh country. In 2008, Jeb will ascend to the Presidency followed eight years later by Barbara BuSh (not Jeb's mother; His niece).

Thank you for bringing my worst nightmare into the cold, clear light of day. Just shoot me now.....please!

Ah, when politicians say that about the Canadian health care system that is just their big business backers talking. Canada is not as densely populated as the U.S. is and thus the majority of the folks up here who do have trouble with health care are those who live in small communities, particularly those that are remote from cities. These communities have troubles attracting doctors and of course are far from those centres where the big ticket high-tech diagnostic machines are. For someone who lives in a large city, as I do, treatment is good, even stellar. For those individuals who live in smaller centres falling sick can be a nightmare because it involves travel and sojourns out of town. I don't think that private health care would change this. It is unlikely that these resources would be shifted to thinly populated regions. They are simply too expensive.

My brother now practices medicine in the States. He says that one difference is that he can no longer freely pursue an avenue of investigation when treating a sick individual. He must juggle what he would like to do with what the economics (i.e. insurance) will permit him to do. This wasn't a concern before. (He is, by the way, very fond of his new country and is now a citizen.)

Well can I take his place????? LOL I mean hey, I wanna move to Canada...I also have seen my greatest fear now materialized onto the computer screen.....GRRRRRRRRRRRR

Another Bush for president???? I am with Carline, shoot me too!!!!

And back to the topic of Wal-Mart...I boycotted them many years ago, due to the evils of their company.... but right now I pay over $100 for drugs each month....So maaaaaaaybe I will have to regroup when the savings get to Vegas.... Sucks not to have insurance!

You are welcome to move to Canada, Meow. The more the merrier, eh. And I like cats, too.