Food and Drug Law Commons^™

Minnesota: Leading The Way On Canadian Prescription Medicine Importation, Kevin Goodno, Karen Janisch

William Mitchell Law Review

In the United States, about $160 billion is spent on prescription medicines each year, with Minnesotans spending about $3 billion. The costs of prescription medicines receive so much attention in large part because, although prescription medicine costs constitute only 10.5% of total health care spending, they account for 23% of the total out-of-pocket costs that people incur when purchasing health care. Minnesota has been a leader in controlling prescription medicine costs. It has aggressively used purchasing pools when possible, and encouraged the use of lower cost, generic prescription medicines when appropriate. Even with these efforts to control costs, prescription medicines …