Lainey

As is common with many of our pals, prescription drugs have made their way into our home. Even with insurance coverage, the co-pays can add up if generics aren't available. You start to think of ways to become, frugal, yes frugal, like pas2k.

I now mail away for our medications. I DON'T LIKE mailing away, I'd rather talk to a pharmacist and know our prescriptions were not filled in a factory warehouse, but money talks. I was taking one medication and was able to adjust the dose downwards. The nurse left the prescription at the same strength, and I cut the pills in half with a cutter. It is a pill that can be cut in half, so now, for one co-pay I get six months worth of meds. Who knew I could be so frugal? In looking up the price on line, the higher dose is only a few dollars more than the lower dose so I'm saving the insurance company money too. It turns out the same is true on another medication I use.

My sis told me my brother in law (who gets his meds from the VA) was given a few scripts with instructions to cut the pills in half. I have heard of this before, and thought it was kind of lame, to be honest, but now I've seen the Why dish out more cash than you need for drugs? We've got better things to spend our cash on, like gas for the S. So I wonder if anyone else has gone this route?

zeiss

Come and live in Canada, where prescription drugs are cheaper, and where pharmacists suggest lower-cost generics as substitutes unless physicians insist on brand name drugs.

Lainey

I would, but it's cold in Canada, even colder than MA.

Here in MA, it is mandated we get generics if available, unless the doctor states otherwise. Some of those drugs are now pretty inexpensive to purchase. Unfortunately, some of the prescriptions we use are not available as generics.

tof

We live in Mississippi, considered by many to be the most hindbound place in North America and we always have a generic option unless the physician specifies no generic.

Nice tip on the pill-cutting, Lainey. I've been cutting my Lipitor since my cardiologist put me on it a year ago. He kept lowering the dosage as my numbers improved (quite dramatically) and I kept cutting the new doses in half.

We now have an employee pharmacy here at the hospital so I can get meds with copays as low as the mail services. (Our helath insurance is funded by the hospital and administered by a third party...thus the price break.) Very nice little perk.

uwimage

I'm taking chantix (to help quit smoking...it's working pretty good, I'm already smoking less than half of what I use to two weeks ago)

The pharmacist gave me the cheaper start up method...cut them in half for the first week of starting them, instead of buying the .5 mg ones to start...that was at Target, they do a lot of generic's at $4 to match Wal-Mart since we won't shop there it's nice that Target matched them.

However Chantix is not cheap, $130 a month at Target, just found out Costco has it for $100...it's worth it to quit smoking though.

Lainey

Check the Canada on line pharmacies for pricing too.

Here's some info on pill cutting: saving $/cutting pills

DiamondDave2005

Another way to save is to have some doctor friends. My father-in-law is a doctor (he's 77 and still working) and he and his pals share all their samples and freebies from the drug companies. He saves a lot of money, as his daily pill intake looks like a mini-drugstore.

Lainey

^
That's true, samples are great, but in some cases, after it is determined that a drug is right for you, (the main purpose of the samples) the samples would better serve those who can't afford to buy medicine either because they have no insurance or prescription coverage.

Emil St-Hilaire

just tell me what you need,and I'll ship them to you at cost,+postage...

Lainey

I do have prescription coverage, so I don't generally need my Canadian pals to get my medication, but the day may come...............