Ed Bernstein talks about prescription drugs, other issues

U.S. Senate candidate Ed Bernstein outlined on Wednesday his three-point plan to lower prescription drug prices, especially for seniors.

Bernstein, a Democrat, spoke for about an hour at The Meeting Place, an adult day-care center in Carson City.

Bernstein wants seniors to pay the same prices for prescription drugs that drug companies charge HMOs and government agencies. Current law makes the price markup a secret.

"The pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable in the world," said Bernstein. "They charge the highest prices to seniors" who often need the most medicine while being the least able to afford it.

Bernstein wants to add to Medicare a $25-per-month prescription drug benefit that seniors and other eligible persons can purchase to cover prescription drug charges.

"We shouldn't let the pharmaceutical drug companies dictate to us how much we're going to pay," he said. "It's absolute greed and absolute arrogance."

Bernstein believes much of the cost of his benefit plan will be recouped because he would not require Medicare recipients to become inpatients to get prescriptions.

Bernstein also said he'll fight to repeal a 1987 federal act that prohibits importing prescription drugs from cheaper foreign sources. He said this law keeps prices artificially high in the United States.

To make his point, Bernstein and a group of Nevadans, including staffers and a pharmacy technician, traveled on June 20 to Tijuana, Mexico, to buy prescription drugs for a fraction of what they cost in Nevada.

The travelers saved almost $1,000. Bernstein described one drug that had been shipped out of Las Vegas and was purchased in Mexico for one-sixth its Nevada cost.

Bernstein said such large price discrepancies anger him because taxpayers foot about 50 percent of the drug industry's research and development costs.

"They take our tax dollars and then they rip us off."

Bernstein said all seniors, regardless of income, should be able to participate in his proposed programs.

Listener reaction to Bernstein's talk was consistent.

Isabel R. Young, a Republican who said she backs Bernstein, said, "We have to solve the prescription drug problem. I'm supporting him especially on this issue."

Shirley Swafford, a representative of the American Association of Retired Persons, said Bernstein "really understands this prescription drug issue. He takes the concerns of seniors to heart."

Besides prescription drug prices, Bernstein also spoke briefly on veterans' health care, Social Security savings accounts and Medicare solvency.