It seems that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has no problem in endangering the lives of the citizens of Illinois in a nasty game of chicken. He's actually forcing doctors to change prescriptions away from medications sold by drug companies who have decided to limit shipments to Canada. This unexpected wrinkle in the drug reimportation tombstone war is another sad step towards a climactic showdown and demonstrates that the politicians can't be counted on to ensure health and safety.
The problem here is twofold. Individual reactions are unpredictable and forcing people to go to a competing formulation can cause reduce effectiveness and even risk the patient's health. Also the time spent hashing all this out is both costly for the physician and increases the likelihood that the patient won't be taking any medication while the fight goes on. Governor Blagojevich had better hope that nobody ever actually totes up the medical damage to Illinois' poor and aged. The affected programs are Public Aid and SeniorCare.
Posted by TMLutas at December 18, 2003 11:55 AM