I had to get a prescription filled recently after a minor mishap (don’t ask) and only when I walked into my local 24 hour pharmacy to get my prescription filled did I remember an important piece of money saving advice. After the shock wore off from hearing what they were charging for the meds I needed I said “thank you” and went straight home to my trusty computer to check out my other options.
What my name brand corner drugstore store was asking for two prescription fills of incredibly common drugs was over $50! After my research, I paid a total of $4. You can do the same with your prescriptions.
What my memory had pushed out of existence temporarily in favor of baseball stats and great movie lines was that there are plenty of free and cheap basic prescription meds out there available at quite a few different pharmacies. The antibiotic that I needed I was able to acquire for FREE at a nearby grocery store pharmacy. The painkiller I needed was on another major grocery store’s list of $4 generics. A couple minutes online saved me almost fifty bucks. I sound kind of like a Geico commercial right now don’t I?
Wherever you live there is most likely a cheap off brand drug program near you. When you are at your doctor’s office ask them specifically for the generic form of the drug that you need. If not you could be paying prices up to 70% higher. Then go home and visit the websites of some of the major pharmacy’s near you. Some of the bigger stores participating include Wal Mart, Kroger, Publix, Meijer, Target, and Wegman’s.
Knowledge is power. Unfortunately your prescription drug prices aren’t as easy to comparison shop as an electronics gadget or a new pair of socks but now that you have the information, use it!
We have a high-deductible insurance plan so I try to shop and be smart. I was shocked when I did a little research on my daughter’s asthma meds to find that I can buy them from a Canadian pharmacy online with my Drs prescription (same Glaxo SmithKline brand!) for $25 instead of the $115 I had been paying every 4 months for about 2 years!! GRRRR! What a rip off!
Thanks for the heads-up about the Rx!
Tanya,
That is another great tip. Thanks for adding to the discussion! And it always stinks to overpay but I’m glad you’ve found a great solution now!
Yes it’s the same apparently with the drug companies wanting you to go through the insurance companies’ mail order–one of my druggies is $90 at the drugstore, $20 if you order it through yoru work-plan mail order.
One tactic Ive done for years is instead of paying $10 insurance copay for 30 days of generic for Lasix, I pay $12 for 90 day supply by not going through insurance.
Brilliant move Pat. Well done! Thanks for sharing.
The problem with this is that foreign formulations can be really dangerous. You think you are getting the same amount of active drug, but there are a lot of issues with this. You have to be really careful RE: the source of your medications esp if what you take is for life-threatening conditions. You do pay for what you get.
Consumer–If this statement were true, many, many people would be very sick. I have bought a key drug for my treatment for a year. My insurance would not pay for it. At our insurance-required pharmacy the cost was $1000 for a 1-month supply. By getting the generic from Canada, my cost is $78 for a 3-month supply. I recently had to go to Canada for another drug. Again, it is vital for my treatment. It costs over $300 per month for generic for a month! I can get it in Canada for $114 for 2-months. I can not afford what the insurance wants me to pay for out-of-pocket expenses.
I would love to know what province you are buying your drugs in. I have moved to Nova Scotia and there is no way drugs here are appreciably cheaper than in the States. I have many friends here who do not get their asthma meds because they cannot afford them. Be careful what you are buying.
my pet peeve is overpriced generics.. and why cant pharmacys post prices ? need blog on pricing like we see for gas stations
PA, that is definitely the biggest problem with filling prescriptions. In the rest of our capitalistic society we can shop around for the best price rather easily. It’s not hard to find out who has the best price on a new television or a flight that you are looking for. That is one giant flaw in the system that needs to be addresses. Until then though we just have to do a little extra work as consumers to make sure we don’t get ripped off.
you can compare prices online using goodrx.com
Hey Alex,
I love that website! Thanks for the recommendation. One flaw that I saw in it though was that they don’t seem to include all of the pharmacies. I tried typing in the antibiotic that I was able to get for free and the cheapest price that it showed near me was $10. Still a good price but I wish they would figure out how to incorporate the free meds into their system.
Pharmacy prices are very complicated. Retail pharmacies pay retail prices and hospitals and mail order companies pay reduced government subsidized prices. It is unfair to the free market economy but what can we do. The government has their hand in more than you think and pharmacy prices are included. Also pharmacies buy their drugs from the drug companies so when the yank up their prices due to increased fuel costs etc…. trickle down economics people.
Pharmacy prices are incredibly complicated Angie. It is definitely confusing for consumers. I wish it were easier. Thanks for your comment.
I paid less at Costco than my co-pay and you do NOT have to be a member to visit the pharmacy at Costco.
Good to know Jeff. Thanks for the tip. I’ll add Costco to my list of places to check next time.
Costco will price SOME things online. Their generics are usually much cheaper than anywhere else can do if you lack insurance. Yes, you can use the pharmacy with no membership but if you have a membership they offer a discount card that saves you a couple more bucks.
I had been getting several meds through a national chain and paying roughly $70 WITH insurance. I went to Costco (with membership) and got them all for $25 WITHOUT insurance.
Costco isn’t the be all, end all though. My final script I had been getting for a $10 co-pay. I knew I would pay more because I no longer had insurance but almost fell over when the Costco pharmacist asked for over $400! I declined and went home to check my old records. Finding nothing to indicate insurance had ever been billed anything approaching that amount, I went back to my national chain (with a free discount card I had printed from the internet) and got the same prescription for $78.
It pays to check around.
Shopping around is most certainly the key Aimes. Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.
Aimes, i have indeed worked costco into my checks. also certain cards. if my pharmacy has issues checking best price with cards, i go elsewhere. my particular mail order saves very little. each med is a new ball game of research. sigh.
in PA, I can totally feel understand the sigh. Each new med really is a new ball of wax. I wish the system worked better for consumers.
I would love to be able to shop around for better priced drugs, but unfortunately I have Kaiser for insurance and they will not give patients prescriptions to take to other pharmacies (at least that’s what they’ve told me). They will only send prescriptions directly to the Kaiser pharmacy and that’s it. Not that I have a very high co-pay, but it would be nice to be able to shop around, especially for my daughter who take some fairly expensive meds. Is there anything a patient can do in a situation like that?
Hey Melissa,
You are mostly correct. Kaiser will allow you to fill your prescription at its MedImpact pharmacies which include some of the major drugstores. Unfortunately the free and discount drug providers don’t seem to be on their list. Kaiser is a great for a lot of reasons. I hope you are happy with them other than this issue.
Don’t forget your local independent pharmacies. I had a prescription filled at Walmart for $25 and later got it for $12 at my neighborhood pharmacy. As an added bonus, I received personal attention and was able to have it filled in 15 minutes versus the long lines and impersonal service at the chains.
Great thought Kelly. thanks for contributing to the discussion.
Margaret, my pharmacy is in British Columbia. I don’t know about being careful of my pharmacy and its drugs. I do know my medicine works as well as what I was getting from our required pharmacy here. I’m so sorry that your medicines are so expensive that you can’t afford them. I csn certainly empathize with that.