Are your Rx costs through the roof? Read this!

Canadian Rx - From a Cardiologist at Lima Memorial Hospital

From John Curry

November 23, 2025

By Dr. Mehran Arabpour

November 21, 2025

For the past seven or eight years, because of the extremely high cost of medications in the United States, I have referred many of my patients to pharmacies in Canada. Some of these medications are life saving and have no equivalence in generic form yet. these same medicines are sold in the United States for nine to ten times the price of what the exact same medication costs in Canada, despite being produced by American pharmaceutical companies.

Take an example: a medication designed to prevent stroke in a patient with atrial fibrillation, or another medication meant to prevent stent thrombosis after coronary artery stenting. These are essential drugs. In the U.S., they cost over $400 dollars per month. But the exact same medications can be purchased in Canada for about $145 for three months which is less than $50 a month.

Knowing this, and knowing my patients simply could not afford U.S. pricing, I created a form that I routinely give to them. I instruct them to contact these Canadian pharmacies online, register with them, review the prices, and once they agree, I was more than happy to send the prescription to Canada so they can receive their medications at a fraction of the cost ,without having to choose between eating, paying their mortgage, or staying alive.

For the past four months, however, many patients have told me that the cost in Canada has increased. The same medication that used to cost $135 for three months is now $200 for the same three month supply. On top of that, they are now paying an additional tariff to the United States government simply to import the medication for their own personal use.

Imagine someone living on seven or eight hundred dollars a month from Social Security. They were willing to spend $135 of that for a three month supply of a life saving medication because their insurance would not cover it. Now the same person has to pay forty or fifty dollars more, not for the medicine itself, but as a government imposed tariff.

Is this really a fair way to “fix” trade imbalances or prevent outsourcing of jobs and technology? By taxing a 70 or 80 year old grandmother who is already struggling to afford basic care? I have no objection to addressing trade issues. I welcome efforts to strengthen American industry. But imposing tariffs on life saving medications used by our most vulnerable citizens is not the way.

I wish more people could take off their polarized political lenses and stop viewing everything as Democrat versus Republican. If they looked at this simply as Americans, they would see the injustice not only in a healthcare system that already penalizes so many, but also in policies that further victimize those with limited resources.