One of the big parts of the debate over health insurance and health care reform is the high cost of health care, medicine and so on. In their recent spate of rate increases, Wellpoint blamed the high cost of health care as the primary reasons why their rates are increasing as much as thirty-nine percent. Part of this equation is the medicine that goes into health care, and is a large part of the costs of health care that are trying to be brought down. While it’s difficult to convince drug companies to reduce their costs — since they do make so much money, it’s understandable — the Governor of Montana has an idea that might help…get drugs from Canada.

In an article entitled, “Montana governor wants to get drugs from Canada,” from the Associated Press, they write on how Governor Brian Schweitzer wants to get approval from the federal government to purchase drugs from Canada at prices much lower than they would be if purchased domestically. He hopes to get a deal with a Canadian wholesaler that will, hopefully, save the state possibly forty percent out of the $100 million now spend on medication for the state’s Medicaid program.

This is an idea which has been debated before, and is currently being debated now by both the Obama administration and the pharmaceutical industry. They warn that getting drugs from across the border wouldn’t include protections from dangerous drugs, or drugs that are ineffective. Schweitzer counters by saying, “These are the same drugs from the same places,” when talking about Canadian pharmaceutical companies.

It’s times like these, with people losing work, losing health insurance, states making less money from tax revenues and so on, that are causing more people to think along different lines. Even if these lines have been touched on before, these are stressful times that have a lot of people reconsidering ideas that might have been shot down in the past. While this proposal from Montana’s governor isn’t a new idea, now just might be the right time for it to actually happen.

Will this actually happen, however? It’s hard to say, but given our current economic climate, I’m sure other states and municipalities are considering measures like these to save much needed funds. We’ll have to see if this idea makes any headway, but it’ll be an interesting fight to watch.