There’s Gold In Them Thar Pharmaceuticals
Sometimes I wish I could be old already. Prescription coverage. Health coverage. Receiving retirement benefits rather than involuntarily paying $700 a month toward the retirement of others.
Okay, not really, but it’s easy to become cynical.
While I was at the laundromat, which we are pouring money into because the washer died and we haven’t seen clear to spend the three hundred bucks or whatever on a replacement yet (and we really need a dryer too, as it’s all but dead), I walked across the parking lot to CVS with my latest prescription. I expected the Effexor to be expensive. When I turned in the prescription, which was for 90 days at 2 pills a day, I asked how much it would be so I’d know whether I needed to go to the bank before picking it up tomorrow or maybe Wednesday.
The gal put it in and showed me, all aghast, that it was $189 and change. That’s around the high end of what I’d expected the total to be.
But wait!
She had read the prescription as 100 pills, not 180. Extrapolating brings the total to $340 or so.
They weren’t able to show me the exact total, because they didn’t have enough on hand for 180. They gave me six pills to tide me over, no charge until they fill the whole thing.
That’s our washer. That’s (at least a start on) Deb not having to keep putting off the emergency dentistry that one of these days won’t wait. That’s almost our co-pay for having the baby. That’s 42% of a month of health insurance that doesn’t cover prescriptions. That’s probably far more than the car repairs will cost when I presumably get them this week, since I have had the money to do so. That’s the cost of my annual weekend vacation. That’s far more than all of the three of our other prescriptions combined. That’s more than all the new stuff we needed and largely have yet to buy for the new apartment to be fully organized and functional.
I almost wonder if this is the doctor’s idea of some sick joke, since he knows I sometimes skip a few days of whichever of my other prescriptions come due when I temporarily don’t have the cash, and the most expensive of those runs $40. As Deb asked, what was he thinking?
Well, he was thinking 90 days at once is a convenience. Oddly enough, it may be better that we have to plan on $340 each 90 days than over $100 each month like clockwork. Or not, since it feels so much easier to come up with $110 or so. What he wasn’t thinking was of trying something that might be effective and lose the side-effects without being gold-plated. I’m not amused. I’m tempted to skip them, or at least skip going and picking up the full prescription, until I have been there for my blood pressure check Thursday and done a sanity check.
Sigh…
The worst part is, we aren’t absolutely certain that the stuff will be effective enough in that dosage to be worth it. At half that, on samples, it has made a definite but extremely subtle difference. I’d call it enough to be worth continuing to take if the stuff weren’t costly. Doubling the dose needs to be some kind of miracle cure by comparison, if that’s what it will cost.
Whew! I would’ve had a heart attack. I get a lump in my throat now when I have to pay a $38 co-pay for my hormones. My kids REALLY HATE when I miss my hormones though (they’d likely give up allowance for me to get it).
IF you know your Doc really well, ask for samples. I have a great doc and anytime he gives me a new med or changes my dose, I ask for samples to get me through seeing whether this switch is going to work before shelling out a bunch of money.
There are plenty of effexor type medicines (not sure what you’re taking it for) that would work just as well but be MUCH cheaper on your pocket. Just a tught.
Good luck.
DawnPosted by Dawn on 11/15 at 12:12 PMAs a nurse, I speak from experience...ALWAYS ask for samples, first.
Most docs just never think of giving them out, though that’s exactly what they’re for.
And, believe it or not, it’s usually far cheaper to ‘buy in bulk’, so to speak, when it comes to drugs. The larger the amount of pills prescribed, the less each one costs.You can also ask the pharmacist to divvy them up...just get 30 or 60 at a time, rather than the full 90 day supply. Most of them are willing to do that.
Posted by Pammy on 11/15 at 01:41 PMThe first three months were samples, which insulated me from cost data. At the end of the three months, the decision was that 75 wasn’t enough, time to move to 150, and at the same time the intro was over so prescribing it was logical.
Posted by Jay on 11/15 at 01:56 PMtry costco,sams,bj’s
Posted by on 11/15 at 07:07 PM
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