State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
USA TODAY is reporting thousands of older Americans are heading to nursing home and assisted living facilities in Mexico. One of them, Jean Douglas moved from Bandon, Oregon to what she calls, “paradise.”
She now has a studio apartment, gets three meals a day, laundry and cleaning services, and round-the-clock care from staff speaking English, for $1,300 a month, far less than what it would cost back home in Oregon. Plus, she’s surrounded by mountains, a lake, and year-round temperatures around 80 degrees.
Providing health care for the elderly is a new industry in Mexico, so the quality of care is sketchy. In some instances, it’s horrible.
Government regulation is scarce. Mexican officials inspect nursing homes that are operating out of private homes only once a year, unlike U.S. inspectors, visiting a home several times a year. Some facilities have gone bankrupt, sending displaced American retirees to look elsewhere to live. Conditions can be filthy, Mexican food is a challenge for the elderly, and there is the language barrier to contend with. Medicare, Medicaid, the Department of Veterans Affairs and most U.S. insurance companies do not cover care or medicine for patients outside America, so Mexican managers insist on ability to pay.
Larry Minnix, president of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, cautions that the lack of government oversight can place elderly patients in jeopardy. "It's the same danger you have of going across the border looking for cheap medications," Minnix said. "If you don't know what you're getting, and you're not getting it from people you trust, then you've got an accident waiting to happen."
Many Americans, including Wisconsinites, have looked to Canada in search of cheaper prescription drugs. This year, Congress failed to pass legislation to legalize the import of drugs from abroad, but another attempt is forthcoming from Senator David Vitter, R-La. Senator Vitter wants to prohibit Customs agents from seizing U.S. residents prescription drugs brought across the border from Canada.
Joel White, a visiting senior fellow at the Galen Institute, a nonprofit tax and health policy research group in Alexandria, Va., and a former staff director of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee claims Senator Vitter’s legislation “would actually expose Americans to grave health risks.”
White points out the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has consistently declared that it cannot guarantee the safety of drugs brought in from other countries, and the FDA cannot keep up with inspections. White says, “On a typical day at the John F. Kennedy International Airport Mail Facility, 500 to 700 of the roughly 40,000 packages suspected of containing drugs are inspected. And according to a 2004 study, many of the packages that are inspected contain drugs that violate the FDA's safety standards. This includes expired medicines, counterfeit drugs and insecure packaging.”
If Congress legalizes drug importation, White says more unsafe drugs will pour into the United States. The sheer number of imported drugs has tripled over the past few years according to a Congress Daily study, but the number of inspectors has only increased by 10 percent.
Supporters of drug importation claim only drugs from safe countries could be purchased. Remember, it is impossible for the FDA to inspect every drug that enters the country. On-line pharmacies can easily lie about their location and the drugs they are selling. The World Health Organization estimates that 50 percent of medicines sold through rogue Web sites are fake. Counterfeit medicines that do not have active ingredients or those that have highly toxic substances can harm patients by failing to treat serious conditions. In some cases, the counterfeit drugs can be fatal.
William K. Hubbard of the FDA testified before Congress in June 2003 that the quality of drugs made in the U.S. is very high, but the same cannot be said for foreign drugs.
“Many drugs obtained from foreign sources that either purport to be or appear to be the same as U.S.-approved prescription drugs are, in fact, of unknown quality. FDA cannot assure the American public that drugs imported from foreign countries (like Canada) are the same as products approved by FDA.
These outlets may dispense expired, subpotent, contaminated or counterfeit product, the wrong or a contraindicated product, an incorrect dose, or medication unaccompanied by adequate directions for use. The labeling of the drug may not be in English and therefore important information regarding dosage and side effects may not be available to the consumer. The drugs may not have been packaged and stored under appropriate conditions to avoid degradation. When consumers take such unsafe or inappropriate medications, they face risks of dangerous drug interactions and other serious health consequences,” said Hubbard.
How risky are drugs purchased from other countries li
