Title
Authorizing the Committee on Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings to investigate the desirability and feasibility of providing access to affordable prescription drugs from Canada and other industrialized countries to active and retired City employees and to residents of Philadelphia through the City's district health centers; and further authorizing the Committee in furtherance of such investigation to issue subpoenas as may be necessary to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents to the full extent authorized under Section 2-401 of the Home Rule Charter.
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WHEREAS, Price controls imposed by the Canadian health care system result in prices for prescription drugs as much as 80 percent lower than the identical drugs sold in the United States. The dramatic cost savings drive over 1 million Americans each year to purchase prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies, through the mail or over the Internet, in violation of federal laws that restrict access to foreign pharmaceuticals; and
WHEREAS, A recent USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll indicated that 71 percent of Americans support having access to prescription drugs from Canada and other countries; and
WHEREAS, Last year, the City spent $11 million on prescription drugs; and
WHEREAS, The states of Illinois, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Vermont, Ohio, Delaware, Louisiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Iowa and Minnesota are currently considering ways to bring Canadian prescription drugs into their states and make them available to their residents, even though the importation of these pharmaceuticals is illegal; and
WHEREAS, Springfield, Massachusetts has led the movement to provide legal access to Canadian drugs since it became the first city in the country to begin reimbursing city employees for prescription drugs purchased from Canada last July. Springfield estimates that it...
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