Pharmacist Jim Elrod fills a prescription on Wednesday at Dart Drugs & Surgical in Dalton.

DALTON, Ga. — If lawmakers want to bring down prescription drug prices, they have to find some way to increase competition among drug manufacturers, says state Rep. Bruce Broadrick, R-Dalton.

“Competition is the one thing we know will bring down prices. It happens whenever new generic versions of these drugs enter the market,” said Broadrick, who is a pharmacist.

A 2016 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 77 percent of Americans say prescription drug prices are unreasonable.

“I take medication for cholesterol and for high blood pressure, and my expenses aren’t too bad,” said Dalton resident Kelly Linder. “But I know people that really struggle. If you don’t have insurance or need something insurance won’t cover, it can cost you.”

Congress is currently considering several bills that promise to bring down or at least slow the increase of drug prices, including a bill that would bar drug companies from paying the manufacturers of generic versions of brand-name drugs to not sell the generic.

“Anything that could speed up the process of getting generics to market would probably help,” said Broadrick.

Lawmakers are also looking at allowing Americans to import prescription drugs from Canada. That’s something lawmakers have talked about for over a decade. But it’s firmly opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, which says it could open the door to counterfeit drugs.

“I guess that is possible,” said Dr. Don Thomas, a Dalton family physician and a former state senator. “But what we are talking about is the exact same drugs those companies are selling in the United States. They sell them for less, sometimes much less, in other countries. We are talking about allowing people to buy them there at that lower cost and having them shipped to the United States.”

It’s currently illegal to buy drugs abroad, but the law isn’t strictly enforced.

“I didn’t know that,” said John Gibbons. “I know people who order drugs from Canada. They seem to be happy. As far as I know the drugs they get work fine.”

Congress is also looking at allowing Medicare, which provides health coverage for senior citizens, to negotiate drug prices, something it is currently barred from doing.

Broadrick says that could have a big impact.

“Medicare is the biggest drug buyer in the United States,” he said.

He noted that in Georgia, to participate in Medicaid, the joint state/federal program that provides health coverage to low income people, drug sellers must agree to “most favored nation” pricing, basically agreeing to sell to Medicaid for the lowest price that they accept from any other buyer.

Thomas says he’s not sure how much of an impact any of these proposals will have.

“But we have to do something,” he said.