Gov. says Canadian drugs still needed after health care reform

Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Tuesday that he is still moving forward with his effort to import cheaper medicine from Canada, despite promises made in the national health care reform recently passed by fellow Democrats. Schweitzer said the health care reform does far less than critics allege and supporters claim, and that he suspects that prescription drugs will still be too expensive. "This is a good bill, a good start," Schweitzer said. "But what they didn't do is challenge the pharmaceutical lobby, the medical lobby, and the medical device-manufacturing lobby because they are too just powerful." The governor recently asked federal permission to import cheaper drugs from Canada. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it has received the governor's request for a waiver and is working on a formal response. He estimates the move could chop 40 percent off the $100 million the state spends each year on prescription drugs for Medicaid, the children's health insurance program, state employees, and inmates at the prison.