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Letter: Lower prescription drug prices

By Dr. Melanie Wood, Portland
Published: December 8, 2019, 6:00am

I have served my country in the U.S. Air Force and as a civilian employee of the Department of the Army. Although I’m an “older” American, fortunately at this point I take no prescription drugs and I have excellent insurance besides Medicare. But I have many friends who struggle to pay out-of-pocket costs for doctors’ bills and prescription drugs. It’s criminal what we have to pay sometimes for life-saving medications.

I travel a lot and still marvel at what medications costs overseas. I was recently in Spain and accompanied a friend to the pharmacy, where she bought a blood pressure medication for about $15. In the states it would have been about $400.

It’s time for the U.S. to offer fair and equitable prices for medications, and if Big Pharma won’t voluntarily do this, then national legislation is needed.

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