I was definitely a profit killer when I worked in a pharmacy (which honestly was my favorite job in the entire world, but it was short-lived and nowadays you can’t work at a pharmacy like that, it’s all tied in with corporate retail and no one should ever trust me with a cash register ever). It was not, however, actually a profit killer for the pharmacy, just for the drug companies, so no one cared. These days I do medical billing, which means I actually bill OUT from hospitals so I’m mostly spending my professional time taking money away from insurance companies.
I will now impart all of my profit killing resources onto you, in case you don’t know them. I think most of you know them, now. But just in case you don’t.
THIS IS US-CENTRIC. I’M SORRY.
1. GoodRx – this thing has an app now, so you can look up the best places to get your expensive medicines at the lowest possible prices without insurance on the go, and you no longer have to print coupons because you can just hand over your phone or tablet. Times have changed for the better with GoodRx. Definitely use it before trying to fill your scrip, because it will tell you the best place to go. (You can do that on the website, too.)
2. NeedyMeds– Needymeds is basically the clearinghouse of drug payment assistance. They have their own discount cards, but also connections to many patient assistance programs run by drug companies themselves. They are good assistance programs, too.
3. Ask your county – This is not a link. This is a pro tip. Most county social services will have pharmacy discount programs for people with no and/or shitty pharmaceutical coverage. You can often just find them hanging around at social services offices; you can just pick one up and walk off with it.
4. Ordering online – There are a few safe online pharmacies. I keep a little database in a text file on my computer. Most of them are courtesy of CFS forums, my mother or voidbat, so a lot of that is a hat tip to other people, but if you’re in need of a place to get a drug without a prescription … first I’ll make sure you 100% know what you’re doing for safety reasons and then I’m happy to turn over a link.
5. Healthfinder– A government resource that helps find patient assistance programs in your area. This might also point out the convenient county card thing. RxHope is something a lot of people get pointed to via Healthfinder that’s a good program.
6. Mental Health America – Keeps a list of their best PAPs for psychiatric medications, which can be some of the most expensive and a lot of pharmacy plans don’t cover them at all.
This is so important ppl.
Signal boost the shit out of it!
Booooooooooooooooooost
Good Rx Saved my family a hundred dollars a month while I was getting signed up for CHIP seriously it’s a life savor especially for ridiculously expensive drugs like abilify
Useful info, friends! 😉
Since many of our followers are on medications, I feel like this would be an important resource. -Luna
Also! Some drug companies have patient assistance programs where they send you the drug for FREE if you are uninsured, or if your insurance doesn’t cover that drug.
Do a Google search for “patient assistant programs” + (your med), or search the manufacturers website. Sometimes the info is online; other times you have to call.
Even some of the big name pharma companies have this. It’s certainly not all companies, or all meds, but it is worth a shot.
Before Obamacare, I lost insurance and couldn’t pay for my mood stabilizers (kiiiiinda important to have those when you’re bipolar.) I was on generic Lamictal, but I went to the official Lamictal website, filled out a form with a valid prescription, and they mailed my meds to me every month for free.
If you know anything about bipolar disease, you know that that was a literal life saver. Patient assistance programs ftw!
This is so important given the recent vote to repeal Obamacare. And the cartoon above is so on point They’re literally voting to kill people. Literally.
Some of my meds are no longer going to be partially covered by my ridiculously expensive private insurance. I just used the GoodRX website to look it up, and I can either spend $40 at Target to pay for one of them out of pocket–per month–, or I can get it at Sams Club for $4. No that is not a typo. The drug I need to take every single day to keep my allergies from spiraling out of control (yay auto-immune bullshit) is literally ten times cheaper at Sams Club. Holy shit.
Signal boost for my US buds
Prescription hope is another good one. Any medication you can for 50 dollars a month. My diabetic med cost 475 dollar at most pharmacies….I use prescription hope and it has been a life saver!
It’s wild to me, the people who are willing to stan things like big pharma and health insurance companies in the US like somehow the cost of things isn’t arbitrary and absolutely made for profit.
Just saw a comment that said “I don’t think people realize how expensive health care actually is, it’s not like pill companies are out to make a profit” like, I’m sorry, my migraine meds which I can get for free or for a significantly lower cost in nearly every other country in the world, would cost me $120 per month in the US if I chose to fill the prescription. And yes, that’s generic. And yes, that’s with health insurance. My health insurance doesn’t cover them.
My epi pens, a literal life saving rescue med, if I can’t get a generic non auto-injector or if I don’t have a coupon, can cost me $600 per pen. And you’re supposed to carry two and replace them yearly.
For that price I can literally fly home to the UK for two weeks and have them replaced for free (I’m a UK citizen before anyone gets their knickers in a bunch about freeloading scroungers), and still have an extra $100-400 to play with depending on the time of year I fly out.
I literally plan trips home based around when my meds need refilled, because it’s works out cheaper than trying to get a pharmacy in the US that takes my insurance and provides generic non automated adrenaline pens.
That’s fucked up.
And it is absolutely because health insurance companies and “big pharma” are in cahoots over how much profit they want to make from tragic events and debilitating illnesses. Meanwhile people die cause it’s a choice between food for their kids or insulin for their diabetes.
But go off I guess.
Another thing that ticks me off is people who go “oh just get new insurance if yours is too expensive” like I didn’t already think of that, and am also not restricted with who will cover me because I’m an immigrant.
Cause oh yeah, that’s a thing.
Anyone that says “well immigrants come here to get free healthcare” are absolutely talking out of their asses.
“Oh but we meant the illegals…” except you cannot get Medicaid or state equivalent without an official alien green card number??? So that’s false???
“But I heard…” well ya heard wrong.
Free health care is such a weird phenomenon to me.
We have state clinics, which are cheaper than private hospitals. You still pay for your treatment though. Medical insurance is ridiculously expensive, and not a “Benefit” with most jobs in my country. You’re lucky if you land that gig.
My husband tore a ligament a year back, we carted him off to the state hospital, he sat in line for 9 hours, had a quick xray to confirm and was sent home with aspirin. That was the extent of the help he got.
I had my wisdom teeth removed in a private hospital. I’m deathly allergic to tramal, which is the painkiller they inject you with after you come out of surgery. Noted on my chart and medical alert bracelet. I felt confident that the doctors wouldn’t inject me with the thing that could kill me.
I guessed wrong.
If I hadn’t asked the doctor what he was injecting me with ( still high on anaesthetic, fyi) he would have killed me. Do you know what he said to me when I told him I was allergic? “HOW allergic?” 😐.
Pharma companies, healthcare in general? No one cares. Pay, don’t pay. You’re going to suffer regardless. All that matters is how much money they can make off of you.
‘Free’ healthcare isnt all its made out to be. The british NHS will do everything they can to blame YOU for anything that is wrong or that you need treatment for. If your BMI is over the optimim 18 to 25 points you’re screwed. Flu? Too fat. Broken Ankle? Too fat. Polycystic Ovaries? Too fat. Asthma? Too fat. Everything you would not have if you lost weight. Oh you have despression and are self harming? Well if you lost weight… do you see where this is going?
Also prescriptions; in Scotland and Wales prescriptions are free. But in England unless you have a medical exemption card you’re paying. I have asthma and regularly have to replace my inhalers for various reason; lose them, break them, they run out. I earn less than £7k a year so i earn less than someone who claims benefits. The one exception is if they are what are classed as ‘life saving drugs’ you dont have to pay.
Doc: If you dont carry your inhaler and have an attack you’re screwed and could die.
Me: Oh ok. So can i get a medical exemption card? These things are getting expensive.
Doc: Nope
Me: But you said if i dont have my inhaler i could die from an asthma attack.
Doc: Exemption cards are only for Life Saving Drugs.
Me: But you just said i have to carry my inhaler or else i could die. It could literally save my life.
Doc: Nope. Inhalers arent considered life saving drugs.
Me: but…
Oh and lets get onto mental health care. I was diagnosed with post natal depression after i lost my first child. That then turned into the fairly rarely diagnosed pre-natal depression when i was pregnant with Superpup.
After he was born the trauma of his birth and the isolation that came with being a new mother tipped me back into severe post natal depression again. I found the strength to seek help and my GP referred me to a state shrink…
I walk into his office and before i’ve even sat down he comments that he wished new mums didnt bring their babies with them. Then he told me (not asked) to tell him the history, asked some very emotionally painful questions before telling me to ‘snap out of it before you get committed’.
He then suggested i would feel better if i lost weight and was happy to write me a prescription for amphetamines that would make me very active and happy.
I told him to fuck off and stormed out.
So no, free healthcare isnt all its cracked up to be.
Oh friend. I got news for you. Private for cost care doesn’t remove any of that shit.
It just means I’m getting charged $500 per 20 minute appointment to be told it’s my fault.
That isn’t a money or cost issue, it’s a systemic ussue of the sexism, the racism and ableism that is permitted to run riot in the medical world, regardless of cost.
So, to sum up, healthcare is fucked everywhere.
Fucked but not unfixable. Likely not to any benefit of my lifetime, but we don’t always get to see the forests we burn down to regrow.
To the person complaining about paying for your prescriptions in England, aye, I don’t care for it myself but it’s kinda a completely different thing?
I have daily meds and a prescription can only be for one month’s supply as it’s a controlled drug (yay ADHD), and you know what that costs? £8.80 for a full month of medication. And if I could get legally get two months at a time that would cost what? £8.80. If it was a 10 day course of antibiotics or a course of post-operative pain medication it would cost £8.80.
That does add up, but before people start thinking you’re screwed if you’re on multiple medications each month: if you have to get more than 11 prescriptions a year you can get an unlimited prescription card for cheaper than that
A prescription prepayment certificate (PPC) lets you get as many NHS prescriptions as you need for a set price.
Costs: £29.10 for 3 months £104 for 12 months
Oh and you don’t pay if you’re over 60, under 16, 16-18 and in full time education, are in hospital, are pregnant or had a baby within 12 months and got a maternity exemption, are on low income, are on income support or are under 20 and dependent on someone one income support as well as several other, more specific conditions.
That…that is not even close to $600 for two epi-pens, if you can afford insurance.
I don’t fully understand the US system but looking at it my medication would cost me $100-300 a month? Anyone who’s on Concerta XL/ER 36mg in the states wants to tell me what they pay I’d be interested.
@underthehedge I’m not on Concerta but I’m one of those nutjobs who enjoys reading fine print and the entire medical plan documents, and it’s super easy for me to look up costs.
I would also like to say I am one of the exceptionally rare Americans with a good medical plan (but of course, provided by my employer, which means if I hate my job and want to quit, I might have to stay because otherwise I can’t afford all the meds I have to take!).
Concerta, in my medical insurance, is $60 a month. Also, you can’t just get a prescription for Concerta. You are required to go through “step therapy” first. What is step therapy?
Some drugs require step therapy. This means that you must try one or more prerequisite drug(s) before a step therapy drug is covered.
The prerequisite drugs are equally effective, have U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and may cost less. They treat the same condition as the step therapy drug.
If you don’t try the appropriate alternative drug first, you may need to pay full cost for the brand-name version.
Also, Concerta is a Schedule II drug (same classification as Adderall, the most heavily restricted legal substance you can get. Everything on Schedule I, like heroin, is illegal). I have been taking Adderall for narcolepsy, and actually changed my prescription with my doctor this morning because in the US, there are stupid red tape rules for Schedule II drugs. The most ridiculous one is you cannot get a refill on Schedule II drugs. My doctor has to write a completely new prescription for every single month. This is a pain because every single bottle I get says I have 0 refills. My doctor will send three months’ worth of scripts at a time, but sometimes he forgets to check a little box in the form that puts a date restriction on them. If the scripts do not have a “not to be filled before X date” note, they cannot legally be filled. What will happen is I will realize one morning that I have one day of meds left. I will call the pharmacy to find out if I have a refill coming up, because they can only provide 30 days of meds at a time, so I basically have to run out every month unless I skip days. The pharmacy tech will get confused because there are *never* refills and I have to explain the law to them. They transfer me to the pharmacist. The pharmacist says the scripts expired. I then have to spend the rest of the entire day frantically calling my doctor’s office trying to get my refill sent that day. My doctor is an ENT (ear, nose, throat), so the nurse gets really confused WHY I think my ENT prescribes ADHD meds??? And I have to explain it’s for narcolepsy (ENTs treat sleep apnea, but typically when you have the flavor of narcolepsy I do, the daytime symptoms are the same and it’s complicated but not that complicated why my ENT prescribes a stimulant), and that I need the refill asap because I don’t want to fall asleep driving, etc. I have to do this ALL the time.
Seems like a great system when the only way to make sure you don’t run out of ADHD meds is to keep super organized and on top of things and anticipate this happening EVERY MONTH. *headdesk*
But anyway, back to the cost. My copay for non-preferred brands is $60/month on my current insurance (which is the best insurance you can get if you’re a normal American). Back when I had not the best insurance you could get (which cost me $350 a month just in premiums), non-preferred brand prescriptions were $250 a month. My maintenance inhaler is a non-preferred brand under patent, so there is no alternative. I had to stop taking it because I couldn’t afford it anymore.
Also fun story: before I was officially diagnosed with asthma, I almost died from an asthma attack. I couldn’t go to the ER because if I did go, not only would I not be able to afford it because I didn’t have health insurance and was unemployed, but I would also get diagnosed with asthma, and this was back when you could get denied medical insurance if you had a pre-existing condition. Fun times!
@nanofishology Thank you that was very helpful and informative. So, on one of the best plans it would be maybe $60 a month: no thanks. Especially as I did hear there was an off brand on the market in the US calling itself concerta that was nothing like it and wildly ineffective.
I have to jump through some similar bullshit hoops for my concerta tbh and the rules differ a bit depending on where you are. The NHS has some minor differences in rules at the local level. Repeat prescriptions here are still a new prescription each time but you don’t need to go in for an appointment you just ring up and they do you another.
In Aberdeen I could just register my repeat prescription with my local chemists/pharmacy and they’d re-order it from my doctors for me about 6 days before the end or something, so when I realised I was running low I would just go in and they’d have it ready. A month was 30 pills, once got 60 because I was going away end of the month and it was easier.
Nottingham I couldn’t get them through the doctors but had to go to the psychiatric outpatients unit at the local hospital to get my prescription, of course these could not be ordered by the pharmacy. A month was 30 pills.
Here in Liverpool I can actually order my repeats online, but I cannot have them sent to a pharmacy, I have to go into the doctors and pick that up myself and then take it to the pharmacy. The local NHS ruling here is that I can only be prescribed a maximum of 28 pills at a time. 🙃
The overarching legal constraints though are that to collect my medication I need to have photo-ID on me and sign like three things each time.
And boy oh boy have I ever done the whole “running around trying to order my meds because I have work tomorrow and I need my brain to work for that”.
Also that pre-existing conditions thing was the most predatory bullshit I could imagine and exactly why you cannot have private companies in charge of paying for individuals medical care. The idea of “can’t get medical care for illness because it’ll screw my access to medical care” horrifies me…
