Union says medicine from Canada could save East Hampton big bucks

While the city of Boston is cutting off their Canadian drug program, the town of East Hampton, New York is investigating the possibility of setting up a Canadian importation program of their own. It's a bit hard to believe that a government would be looking at doing this now. I think this town is four or five years behind the curve.

From 27 East (NY):
Hoping to convince East Hampton Town lawmakers not to switch town employees’ health benefits to a state-administered insurance plan, leaders of the Civil Service Employees Association have proposed turning to a Canadian mail-order prescription drug supplier to cut costs.

Representatives from the Civil Service Employees of America and CanaRx, a firm that provides name-brand prescription drugs from Canada at a deep discount, claim that using the Canadian company could save the town some $490,000 a year, based on town employees’ current number of prescriptions, and allow the town to continue self-insuring its civil service employees.

But Supervisor Bill McGintee said the prescription drug savings proposed are not enough to match the potential savings that changing medical plans would bring the cash-strapped town. He said that switching from the current self-insured medical benefits to a plan offered by Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a state-administered health insurance organization, could save the town $1.5 million in 2009. ...more