bearisgray

It pays to shop around. Not all pharmacies charge the same for the same prescription. Even if my insurance is helping to pay for it, it makes sense to me to try to keep the costs down.

The medication in question was Advair 100/50 - and I got quotes from $186.99 to $205.99 for it. I made 7 calls to four different chains and all of them are within 10 miles of my home.

Lisanne

Several supermarket pharmacies in my area have specials where they discount your copay on prescriptions, so consider them as well.

MollieSue

Check out Walmart, if you take a continuing prescription, and can have it in generic!
We just discovered you can get a 90 day generic supply for $10! Somebody my DH works with told him about it, and we hunted through their website and found it. They have a list of the specific drugs which qualify:
http://i.walmartimages.com/i/if/hmp/...tomer_list.pdf

Shemjo

Isn't it a shame that companies are ripping off people who don't know to do this, or don't have the wherewithall to go on line or shop around? I think this is criminal.

Shadow Dancer

I just got a refill for my Advair and it was 160.00, my benefits paid 90%. I almost fell over when I picked it up for the first time. I thought they made a mistake.

bearisgray

Advair wasn't on the Target generic list

Lisanne

Some drugs don't yet have generic equivalents.

Be aware that doctors tend to prescribe the latest and greatest that the pharmaceutical salesmen give them samples of. The newest drugs usually cost the most. Sometimes you just need that drug, but very often an older drug will do just fine and cost much less.

I've gotten into the habit of asking doctors if a drug is a $10 copay drug or a $40 copay drug. They may not know exactly, but they do know if it's high cost. Ask if there's something lower cost to try first, especially if it's for a routine condition such as high blood pressure or arthritis, where there is a wide variety of drugs on the market.

I started this after a doctor prescribed an antibiotic that cost over $1000 (insurance covered most of it, but insurance costs only end up increasing our premium rates). A routine antibiotic did the job, and better than the new drug.

butterflywing

anyone who takes several drugs has to have their meds so balanced that generic drugs just won't do it. the newest and most expensive frequently is the best for a specific illness that is constantly being studied.

for me the difference between having a seizure or not is generic or original. many of my drugs don't even have a generic, because their copyrights are still in effect. when they do come out with a generic, my doctor refuses to let me take them even though my co-pay is higher.

he, personally, argues with my insurance company that a generic will not do the job. in many cases there are minute differences, and it has taken us over eight years to come to a balance. i have been seizure-free for three years now. i still never know when i will have a breakthrough. would i take a generic? no way!!

butterflywing

many of the new drugs have no generics. as to the other, i trust my doctor. when he gets samples of my drugs, guess where they go? they don't have to, you know. i've seen him take his perks in meds, so he can give them to his patients for free. good man.

it depends on the man, doesn't it?

Lisanne

Some people really do need to take the name brand even when a generic is available. The active ingredient is the same, but every drug has "inactive" ingredients as well. Those inactive ingredients are still chemicals (everything is a chemical of some sort, even your food and the air we breathe), and there's certainly the potential for those inactives to somehow affect the way the active ingredient is taken up by your body and how it works once it's there. Also, the way the generic is made, the processing, may have slight differences that affect how the drug will work.

Same with the latest and greatest. Sometimes newer drugs are needed.

Just realize that this isn't always the case and don't accept a prescription for the most expensive thing without at least discussing it with your doctor. They rush through their 15-minute visits, doing medicine-on-the-run. Sometimes they need to be questioned and think about why they're prescribing something. It shouldn't be because it happened to be the brand they just heard about from a drug salesman.

Btw, new drugs don't have generics because of copyright/patent/trademark laws. The drug company spends a lot to research and design new drugs, so they get that monopoly on thier inventions for the first however many years. And, granted, they take full advantage of that and charge the earth.