We are in a season that many patents have expired on medications, and many are drugs that doctors commonly prescribe. Medications that used to cost pharmacies $400 for 100 pills, now cost pharmacies from $1 – $10 per 100 pills. What they sell them for is a different story.
Walmart received a lot of publicity about their policy of selling generic prescriptions to people without insurance. For $4, anuninsured person could get one month of a generic medication; $10 bought a 3 month supply of the same product.
This looked like Wal-Mart was doing this for charity. Reality is ANY pharmacy could have done this. Wal-Mart just figured out how to use it for publicity.
Costco is another source that has low pricing on prescriptions. Costco buys and sells prescription medications in the same way they buy and sell everything else in their stores. However, these generic prices aren’t widely known. People have grown accustomed to getting their prescriptions filled with a co-pay $5, $10 or more for a month’s supply.
Buying the prescription on insurance may actually INCREASE the cost of your drugs. It’s like using a coupon that reads “one for the price of two”.
So how do you wade through the confusion of where to fill your prescription? And do you use your insurance?
- Look at your insurance company’s mail-order pharmacy and see if that reduces your out of pocket costs.
- Check out the website goodrx.com . This website assists in comparing prescription drug prices for virtually every pharmacy in America. You may also find pharmacy coupons, manufactures discounts, generics and comparable drug choices.
We are in a changing medical environment. Not just because of the Affordable Care Act, many within the system are starting to speak-up and bring change or at least reveal problems and abuses.
Much of the ‘overcharge’ for medication information came from Dr. David Belk website, www.truecostofhealthcare.org Dr. Belk is in the San Francisco Bay Area. There is much more illuminating information on his website about the ‘broken’ health care system we have.
We need to do our part to be informed and a better consumer of our health care.