We recently suffered an unexpected family crisis when my American mother-in-law was rushed to the hospital following a serious heart attack. The emergency room doctor told her husband that if she had arrived only a few minutes later, she would have died. She spent a week in the hospital and, to our immense relief, is now recovering at home. She’s feeling better every day, and claims what hurts the most now is her pocketbook. She’s on several prescription medications and, with no extended benefits, paying for them all out of her own pocket.

As a Canadian with friends and family living in the States, I was shocked to discover just how much less we pay for Canadian prescription drugs than our American neighbours. One of the drugs my mother-in-law must now take every day, a platelet aggregation inhibitor used to prevent and treat blood clots, heart attacks, strokes, and acute coronary heart syndromes, costs her $170 US for 30 75mg tablets, or $5.67 a pill. (more…)