Tom Curb, R.Ph.

When the call came, I was on a leisurely road trip to examine some "junk" to incorporate into my wife’s "antiques" stash. As usual, I was startled when my cell phone rang – it generally only attracts wrong numbers from strangers that rattle unintelligible gibberish or announces some new headache being dumped on me. But, this time I recognized the voice that excitedly exclaimed, "I can’t believe it! I don’t know how it got through, but it did!" Since I did not know what "it" was, I also did not know what it "got through". My query was answered by, "Your prescription order from Canada." Then, I immediately understood the cause for such exuberance.

You see, I am one of those Medicare-eligibles who refuses to enroll in Medicare’s Plan D Drug "Benefit" program, and it is increasingly obvious that we in that vilified category have become the target of U.S. Customs’ stepped-up seizures of our mail-order prescriptions from international pharmacies. Like many others, I "ran the numbers" on my medications’ cost from available sources and adjusted them with my premium penalties for not joining early on. I just didn’t see how I could justify subsidizing this newest government boondoggle – that is, to any greater amount than my taxes have already been committed. (From Plan D’s fictional cost of $400 billion that the administration quoted to woo legislative support, the projected Medicare outlay has zoomed to about $800 billion – so we all know that the real taxpayer cost will be even more.)

Despite my long-standing knowledge of big savings opportunities from international sources, I had continued to get medications through my Medicare HMO’s in-house pharmacy. Then, as predicted, when Medicare money became available, the pharmacy almost doubled the drugs’ cost. Since I did not want to join Plan D, I went to my personal "Plan B" i.e., "Go north, old man".

I really didn’t see how Customs’ could be interested in my prescription order. For goodness sake, thousands of huge containers of God-only-knows-what are coming through U.S. ports every day with little or no challenge. At least 12 million illegal immigrants have slipped across U.S. borders, and dozens of tons of methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin are smuggled in each year. Four years after 9-11 and billions of taxpayer dollars, airport security systems are still failing, and plane cargo checks are non-existent. Now we learn that Congressional investigators - in the trunks of rental cars of all places – have smuggled enough radioactive material into the United States to make at least two "dirty" nuclear bombs. And the Justice Department says our government's response to a terrorist incident at sea could be "confused and disastrous". I just didn’t expect my little package to attract much attention from Customs– but a lot just like it are.

So, why this sudden government fixation on my prescription order and those of other U.S. patients - all clearly marked as medical supplies and displaying both the address of the sender and the recipient? Maybe Customs is just grabbing this "low hanging fruit" to increase their numbers for border interceptions – it’s obvious that their averages could use a lot of help. Or more likely, the intent is to inconvenience incorrigible old codgers like me to the extent that we will give up and sign onto Plan D, thereby helping subsidize the bottom lines of the Medicare PBMs and the multinational drug cartel. Of course, since our birth dates or ages are not shown on the package, a lot of younger U.S. patients are also being impacted by this multi-bureaucracy conspiracy.

Undoubtedly, Americans’ health is being damaged by Customs’ targeted actions, and some have probably already been killed. But this administration readily accepts and endorses such collateral damage. In too many arenas we have observed its philosophy of "breaking a few eggs to make an omelet" and "acceptable losses". After all, it has contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands of foreigners, proclaiming an intent to "save" them. Now it seems that the U.S. government is turning its forces on its own citizens – "to protect us from ourselves". Sorry, I just don’t buy it.