# Measure 7



## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

I got some information from the vote against crowd. They must think everyone is an idiot.



> "If you are among the more than 93% of North Dakotans who have prescription drug coverage as part of your health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, VA or other plans, these gimmick programs don't apply".





> "Necessary Health Care Services Will Go Away Make no mistake about it".


So if only 7 percent of the people qualify for this why would local pharmacies go out of business? The two statements don't jive.

" Small town Long-Tern Care Facilities Will Suffer".

Another scare tactic. Remember only seven percent qualify.

There are many things in North Dakota to be proud of. Being the only state shafting it's citizens on pharmacy prices isn't one of them. That's right we are the only state in this nation to squash competition. Sort of like making it against the law for out grocery stores to buy milk from Minnesota. It's time to drag the Neanderthals in Bismarck forward into the 19th century. Yes, yes I know this isn't the 19th century, but our legislature hasn't got to the 19th century yet.


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## Habitat Hugger (Jan 19, 2005)

I'm really on the fence with this one. I have some awfully good pharmacist friends running pharmacies in both large and small towns, yet I do know a few people and have seen quite a few ( ex patients) who could be helped by this measure. The small town and independent pharmacies hurt? Maybe so, but probably not all that much.
If we prohibit, say sprawl Mart, from selling pharmaceuticals to help the little drug store, then maybe we should also stop them selling food to aid the small town grocery, tires to help the local little tire store, gas, etc. pretty well we'd legislate every dept store selling a variety of stuff, to help the little guy! No SEARS, TARGET, KMART! Runnings! that ? Huge farm store in Fargo? And a whole lot of others.......
And Harbor Freight, Northern Tools, Cabelas ( I love Mandan Sporting even though I know I probably pay a bit more) and on and on.....
I'm conservative and all for free enterprise, but on the other hand, enacting laws to protect certain businesses and elements of the population, strikes me as maybe the other direction from Conservatism! Pharmacy is a human right and how about all those poor sick people, you say????isn't all health care, then??? Shouldn't open that can of worms.....
I still haven't made up my mind on how I'll vote! Thinking about it. I'd love to protect the small town businesses in every segment of the economy, but should we protect one small segment while NOT protecting all the other pieces of the ND Economy
A good question, Plainsman, worthy of a lot of thought, but you seem pretty closed minded after reading your post. Twice! . Heck, I dunno how to vote on it......I suspect it'll pass this time around regardless.


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## Habitat Hugger (Jan 19, 2005)

Reading your post again Plainsman, small town pharmacies don't have the luxury of huge volume buying like Wal mart, target, CVS, and all those! They have yo pay more and some stock of a drug that is rarely sold might outdated on the shelf of a little pharmacy or at best have money tied up for years for if and when it sold. In a big chain, no problems with this! And nursing homes do tend to buy their stuff locally, though again not a big deal.
A more important thing to my own mind, is that the local people should buy locally from the little guys to sport t's all businesses whenever possible. 
I remember seeing a patient in a small town clinic about 100 miles out of my home base, when when I gave her a prescription, said something to the effect of " glad I got this appointment so early, now I,can get into Bismarck and get it filled at XYZ pharmacy because they say in their advertisements they are cheaper, etc......At the time I'd satellite clinics to try save people from a lot of driving and partly to keep the business of,their drugs, cars, etc. in town! My colleague had the same experience and he finally got so ticked he stopped going out of Bis! He said " why the heck am I wasting my time driving up here so the pt can drive to a pharmacy next to my office?" 
So until the locals stay local whenever possible, we are all spinning our wheels. Not only rural people should support the little guy, but the Urban guy like me should, too! Not try to save a few cents by heading to some Sprawl Mart or Cabelas, or, whatever......

And yes, the big chains definitely will save you money sometimes, but usually Only on commonly prescribed drugs, as will mail order chains, routine and generic drugs particularly. But the less often used, more " orphan like" drugs, they can't and won't! So while those "so much a month" drugs look like good deals, ( sometimes they are, often NOT, BTW) in the long run when you get a bellyache in the middle of the night or in a snowstorm or when you have no other reason to drive to a large center, where is your local pharmacy when you need him/ her! Or your local grocery, etc. 
Being retired, In my travels, I usually get stuff in CVS or Walgreens, then when we get home in a local small pharmacy here for the summer. I've not noticed much if any difference in prices. When adding all this stuff together for Income tax This spring I took a special note of prices for the same stuff and same quantities and found virtually no difference! Sometimes a buck mor OR less, but basically the same. 
So the jury's still out for me! Good and bad like all measures......?....LOL........Ask GST....he ALWAys has the correct answer! LOL. Kidding him- I know he reads this website, too!


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

> Ask GST....he ALWAys has the correct answer! LOL. Kidding him- I know he reads this website, too!


  Yes he is a lurker. I think he searches for my name to see what I am saying.

As for pharmacies drugs should not inhibit ones way of life. I have a son who spends $1200 or more a month after a kidney transplant. He could be driving a new pickup every year instead of a 2002. When drugs start to infringe on what the grandchildren can do I'm not worried about the pharmacy that much. They say in this folder that competition is good. I don't know why they want to squash it then. They would have been better off not sending out this mail that I got today. It just made them look like hypocritical greedy people. They make their extra high margine off the misery of others.


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## indsport (Aug 29, 2003)

One comment that came up in conversation recently about the measure was interesting. A local small town pharmacist pointed out that whether the measure passes or not, he is seeing more customers who, when prescribed a drug by a doctor that needs to be started immediately, wait until they make a drive to a big city (or across the border) to a big chain rather than pick it up locally, jeopardizing their treatment and thinking they will save money. Further, as he knows quite well, the price he charges for most prescriptions is the same as the big chains or the difference is so small that the customer ends up paying more in the long run with the travel costs. Regardless of whether the measure passes or not, the consumer should check before assuming the Walmarts of the world will save them money compared to their local pharmacist. The second item is the local pharmacist usually knows both the patient and the doctor. Going to a big chain, you are probably unknown and just another number. I agree that you may save some money with a big chain for generics that you take constantly but for ourselves who take no regular medication and rarely have something prescribed, we will keep our business local regardless of the outcome of the measure. my 0.02.


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## Habitat Hugger (Jan 19, 2005)

Absolutely indsport and Plains! As I mentioned, I'm a big generics fan for long time proven drugs and so far I've seen little or no no difference between CVS, Wallgreens and my smaller independent home town store here. Yes, they might be able to pass on savings by huge bulk buying, but I doubt they pass this savings on to the consumer much anyway! 
Thinking about it some more, I think I'll vote against it, knowing there will not be a perfect solution. Might not be the true free market system, but what the heck.....however, non competition clauses though frequent, never seem to hold up in court when they are challenged. My bet would be that it will pass this time, for better or worse. 
Also, on line pharmacies should be banned, though this would be tough to do. I remember many patients coming in and wanting TWO prescriptions, one small one for the local pharmacist to tide them and the biggest possible for the on line one, with as many refills checked off as possible! That ****** me off, and continues to do so, but other than for narcotics, it's legal I guess.

What the politicians should do is go after the big pharmaceutical companies and make them do a lot of stuff that would definitely trickle down to the little guy with fairer lower prices. This sort of thing would benefit everybody and not affect the profit of small or large pharmacies. All kinds of things they do in many other countries but might be unpalatable here with certain groups. Sooner or later things will change, has to, and although there'll be a real hue and cry and doom predictions, in 10-20 years 99percent of people will be saying, what was the big fight about back then!?! We won't end up with a perfect system, but I'd predict it would be better than the one we have now. It's good, but in many many ways it falls behind a lot of other countries. oops, someone will call me a commie! LOL. Nope! I just think there are better ways to handle a lot of things in our health care system and other ways of doing things should be thoroughly and OBJECTIVELY explored! Obamacare IMO was not a step in the right direction, but a step sideways, but NOT necessarily backwards either. Doing nothing would be stepping backwards, albeit slowly but surely.....While other modern countries are slowly inching ahead with a lot of trial and error going on all over the civilized world. But none here other than Obamacare which does nothing to reduce overall costs, just spreads the same old same old costs around.
Back to the original topic.....I'm off my soapbox, I promise.
Time to hit the sack! Wish pheasant opener was tomorrow instead of next week!


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