Mike Rogers (MI) Healthcare Cost of Living Michigan

Mike Rogers Stood by the Detroit River and Promised You'd Never Pay More for Prescriptions Than Canadians. In Congress, He Voted at Least Four Times Against Letting Them In.

In a Senate ad shot with Windsor behind him, Mike Rogers says he'll make sure Michiganders don't pay more for prescriptions than Canadians. Bridge Michigan's fact-check found that as a congressman he voted at least four times against bills, motions or amendments to let cheaper drugs be reimported from Canada.

MAGA Report Cards · Oct 08, 2026

Mike Rogers Stood by the Detroit River and Promised You'd Never Pay More for Prescriptions Than Canadians. In Congress, He Voted at Least Four Times Against Letting Them In. — Photo: Paul Sancya / AP, via Bridge Michigan

In a campaign ad for U.S. Senate, Mike Rogers (MI) stands by the Detroit River with Windsor, Ontario, in the background. Prescription drugs, he says, cost more in Michigan than they do across the water in Canada.

"It has to stop," he says. "Our healthcare system is broken. Send me to Washington, DC, and I'll make sure our healthcare is more affordable. I'll make sure you don't have to pay any more for your prescription than they do in Canada."

He has been to Washington, DC. He used to represent a Michigan district in the U.S. House. And when the House voted on letting cheaper prescription drugs come in from Canada, he voted no.

What the fact-checkers found

His opponent, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, answered the ad with one of his own: "Rogers voted 4x against importing cheaper drugs from Canada." On October 7, 2026, Bridge Michigan checked that claim and found it "largely true" — though only three of the four votes the ad cited were directly about drug imports. Its bottom line:

While Rogers was a member of Congress, he voted at least four times against bills, motions, or amendments that would have permitted the reimportation of prescription drugs into the US from countries like Canada.

"Reimportation" is simple. Drugs made in the U.S. are regularly sold in Canada for less. Reimportation would let American pharmacists buy those same U.S.-made drugs back from Canadian sellers and sell them here, cheaper.

The votes

Here's the record, checked against the House clerk's roll calls:

2001: Rogers voted no on an amendment that would have let drug distributors and pharmacists reimport prescription drugs. Bridge notes he did vote for a separate amendment loosening the rules for individuals importing drugs for personal use.
2003: Rogers voted no on the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act — a bill written by a Republican to allow reimportation. It passed anyway.
2003: He voted against a motion to push for drug reimportation in a spending bill, according to Bridge.
2003: During the fight over the Medicare drug benefit, he voted no on sending the bill back with instructions to let the government negotiate lower drug prices. That one was about negotiating prices, not imports — it's the vote Bridge didn't count as directly about reimportation.

And in 2007, in a vote El-Sayed's ad didn't even mention, Rogers opposed another reimportation bill that passed the House. His explanation then: "I understand the intention to lower drug prices to the seniors, that is critically important. What we're doing is throwing open the gates to every (drug) counterfeiter in the world."

What it costs Michigan

The price gap Rogers points at in his ad is real. In 2024, the RAND Corporation found, using 2022 data, that U.S. prescription drug prices were 2.29 times Canada's. In 2017, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a Senate bill allowing prescription drugs to be imported from Canada would save $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year once fully in place, as the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reported.

Rogers had chances to close that gap. He voted against them, and now he's running on the gap.

His campaign's answer

Asked by Bridge about the votes, Rogers's spokesperson didn't address them. She attacked El-Sayed instead, then said Rogers "championed Medicare Part D." Bridge notes that Rogers did vote for the final Medicare drug law — which allowed reimportation only if the Secretary of Health and Human Services certified it safe, and that never happened.

Even the senator who beat him last time has pointed this out. "Watch what Mike has done when he had the job, not what he says now," Sen. Elissa Slotkin wrote.

Not his only health care promise

It isn't the only place Rogers's health care promises run into his record. He wants to charge you $50 for preventive care that insurance now has to cover for free.

What the record shows

Mike Rogers (MI) is running a Senate ad promising Michiganders will never pay more for prescriptions than Canadians. As a congressman, he voted at least four times against bills, motions or amendments to let cheaper U.S.-made drugs be reimported from Canada — three that El-Sayed's ad cited, and a 2007 bill he said would open the gates to counterfeiters.