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A new House bill could help workers buy drugs from pharmacies in places like Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and countries in the European Union.
Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill., introduced the bill, the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act, together with five Democratic cosponsors.
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The bill would require the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create a list of non-U.S. pharmacies that comply with standards comparable to the standards that apply to U.S. pharmacies.
U.S. patients could buy drugs from the HHS-certified non-U.S. pharmacies.
The bill would apply to insulin and other injectable drugs as well as pills.
The bill would exclude compounded drugs, anesthetics that are inhaled during surgery and any drug classified as a controlled substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act.
The bill is under the jurisdiction of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The bill has support from the Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation.
Schakowsky said U.S. patients should pay the same prices for drugs that patients in other countries pay.
"There is no reason that Americans should be paying double, sometimes even triple the cost for the same drugs," Schakowsky said.
The new bill is similar to a bill that was introduced in June 2024, in the 118th Congress, and died in committee.
The odds of Schakowsky's bill getting through Congress are probably low, because Republicans control both the House and the Senate. Schawkowsky has no Republican cosponsors.
But the Trump administration could end up implementing some kind of drug importation rules.
Officials in the Trump administration have expressed mixed feelings about prescription drug imports.
Drug wholesalers already import drugs and drug components. Trump said April 9 that an announcement about new, higher tariffs, or import taxes, on imports of prescription drugs was probably coming soon.
But Trump approved a regulation in November 2020 that lets states import drugs from Canada and make the imported drugs available to their residents. Florida has become the first state to get a drug importation program approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Trump administration said in an executive order released April 15 later that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, should look into ways to reduce patients' prescription drug costs by lowering barriers to prescription drug imports.
Related: Trump tells DOL to develop PBM transparency regulations to lower drug prices
Pharmaceutical manufacturers could end up blocking further expansion of U.S. drug importation options using the same strategies that have helped them block import expansion in the past. But the Trump administration could also side with health insurers, pharmacy benefit manufacturers, employers and patients and let easier personal drug importation rules take effect.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
