Pharmacies of Canada: Affording Drug Access to Lower Income Individuals
The United States has a high cost of prescription medication. Many individuals who live close to the Canadian border have taken advantage of the low price of prescription drugs in Canada for years. Those who do not live close to a border with Canada can still take full advantage of low prices by ordering their prescriptions from a Canadian pharmacy online.
One of the many reasons drugs are so affordable in Canada is that the government sets some price controls. The national Canadian government along with each province look at comparative prices of the drugs among several other countries. They take an average of these prices and set is as a price ceiling that no pharmacy can exceed. Many online pharmacies sell the drugs for even less due to low overhead costs and bulk purchase discounts.
Finding a Canada pharmacy online does not take long. Pulling up any search engine reveals that there are many pharmacies available to take your order. It is important to note that nearly all of them require a faxed copy of your doctors prescription for medication. One cannot order medication that they do not need or would like to resell to others.
Lower income individuals can take full advantage of purchasing Canada drugs online by purchasing generic versions of their medications. Many of the branded pharmaceutical drugs costs premium prices. However after the patent expires on a medication the market is typically filled with alternatives that cost much less and are the same exact medication.
New and expensive medications may be difficult to find in many Canadian pharmacies. The reason behind this is the high cost of the drugs as they are exclusive to the drug manufacturer. Research and development of different medications can costs tens of millions of dollars and the pharmaceutical companies only have a short period of time to recoup this cost. Canadian provinces try to keep the cost of their prescription medication programs down and may limit the amount of new/expensive drugs that can be prescribed.
Visiting a Canada pharmacy without a prescription or placing an online order without mailing/faxing your prescription to the pharmacy will not get your any medication at all. There are many free clinics in large metropolitan areas that allow patients to wait to see a doctor. Depending on the level of income the clinic may require a small fee to reimburse for basic expenses. Still it is much cheaper than visiting a typical doctor and getting a prescription for your problem.
Canada drugs are just as safe as those in the United States. They are all produced to the same or even higher standards that U.S. medications are. Most online pharmacies order directly from the manufacturer so they can reduce their costs. One or two pharmacists and a pharmacy technician package each order and then it is shipped directly to your door.