Bernie Sanders, running for the Democratic Presidential nomination in the U.S., plans to visit Windsor later this month to highlight the impact of high drug prices on Americans.
He revealed the plans during an interview with CNN.
Sanders is expected to meet with a group of Type 1 diabetes patients in Detroit before crossing the border on July 28.
Two days later, he will participate in presidential primary debates in Detroit hosted by CNN.
Americans have been coming across the border into Windsor to buy cheaper prescription drugs for some time, but the visits became higher profile in May. A vial of insulin in Ontario can cost between $40 to $100, but in the U.S. the same vial can cost ten times more.
Richard Yee owns and operates Yee Pharmacy in downtown Windsor where Americans have been buying medications, both prescription and over-the-counter, for decades.
He told BlackburnNews.com there is a reason why drug prices are so much more affordable in Canada.
"We have a regulating party that regulates drug prices. The federal government kind of adjust prices because the government pays for a lot of the medications here," he said. "In the U.S., it's a lot of private insurance.
"And, if they buy drugs in Canada it's more safer than them buying it from online or from other countries because our regulations are quite strict, like the U.S. regulations," he continued.
Sanders has championed the fight for a single-payer health care system in the States for years. He proposed it during the Democratic presidential primaries during the 2016 campaign and leads his opponents this time around too.
You can call me a lot of things but you cannot call me inconsistent. Our country must join every other major nation of the world and guarantee health care as a human right.
I hope we are not going to keep debating this for another 50 years. #MedicareforAll pic.twitter.com/aCJPRYfq5P— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 11, 2019
CNN reported more than 30 million Americans have diabetes, of which 7.5 million require insulin. Another 1.5 million have Type 1 diabetes.
Sanders has come to Canada in the past to help people access cheaper drugs. Two decades ago, he crossed the border with a group of mostly women fighting breast cancer.