The May Consumer Reports looked at “Where to Get Rx Drugs for Less”: generic version of Lipitor (one month’s supply) price ranged from $0.54 ScriptCo to $14.60 Amazon.
“According to a 2021 Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, 3 in 10 adult Americans who need a prescription drug said they didn’t take it as directed in the past year because the cost was too high… A dozen or so bills addressing the problem of high drug costs have been introduced in Congress over the past few years… Online Prescriptions: The Lowdown… Six of the pharmacies say they keep prices low in part by not accepting insurance. That means companies can avoid additional dispensing charges and other fees they may incur from an insurer or a middleman like a pharmacy benefits manager” https://www.consumerreports.org/online-pharmacies/online-pha…
“I had an eye exam two weeks ago where the doc found a cataract blooming in my right eye (that I had already self diagnosed) and a suspected baby just getting started one in left eye that I wasn’t aware of. She offered options for a surgeon with just over two years experience who could fix it in about 8 weeks vs the highly experienced over booked one that could do it in less than a year…”
Don’t know where you live, but in Texas in the DFW area, had my local eye doc suggest I needed cataract surgery both eyes.
Gave me referral to someone who had done it for 10 years and eye doc was well satisfied with results of his patients. 8 week wait. One eye done, next one in six weeks. That done. Both good. They don’t do both at same time since you’ll not be using the eye for a few days.
The good news - Medicare pays for the operation entirely with the basic lens, and any needed corrective eye glasses after. If you were near sighted, you’re likely to be the same after. IF you had astigmatism, same deal.
The other news - you have options for other lenses, some of which can correct vision problems. They are not cheap but I found them worth the cost.
Routine around here and done quickly. Entire clinics set up to do it.
"Don’t know where you live, but in Texas in the DFW area, had my local eye doc suggest I needed cataract surgery both eyes.
Gave me referral to someone who had done it for 10 years and eye doc was well satisfied with results of his patients. 8 week wait. One eye done, next one in six weeks. "
I’m glad your surgery was successful, but am curious as to your feelings on the extended wait times
on getting the surgery performed ? I recall you vociferously denigrating the British and Canadian
national healthcare plans over the years on this board, due to claims of extended wait times for
surgical procedures.
“I’m glad your surgery was successful, but am curious as to your feelings on the extended wait times on getting the surgery performed ? I recall you vociferously denigrating the British and Canadian national healthcare plans over the years on this board, due to claims of extended wait times for surgical procedures.”
As you get older in England, you wait longer and longer…my Fried Geoff had to wait 18 months at age 82 for a bypass operation. He died 17 months later…of course, from a heart attack due to clogged arteries.
Here, it’s probably a 6-8 week wait.
Now, in England, if you’re 45 and need a bypass, you get it a lot sooner. The waiting list is based upon ‘years of quality life’… what some wanted to foist off on us here - to give ‘free’ government medical to everyone. That means rationing.
same problem in Canada with two few MRI machines and too few surgeons…but it has been getting in ‘some’ of the Canadian provinces due to lots of screaming by patients.
UpNorthJoe: I recall you vociferously denigrating the British and Canadian national healthcare plans over the years on this board, due to claims of extended wait times for surgical procedures.
I’ve been aware of the right eye cataract for several months but at no time did it feel like it was a urgent lifesaving emergency? At no time did I notice blood flowing onto the floor from my veins or unbearable pain! I just happen to have a lot of time available to clear up small details before the next wave of whatever is next hits us.
Tomorrow I will call the dentist about a filling that is going wonky and she will ask me to come right in mostly because my dental plan pays 90% of the cost immediately over the phone (I pay the rest). Dentists got hit hard by COVID-19 as much of what they do in optional.
Who gets a dental cleaning done in the middle of a global pandemic?
“I’ve been aware of the right eye cataract for several months but at no time did it feel like it was a urgent lifesaving emergency”
yeah, but you’re a bada$$ Canadian from the Superior bush, you can’t expect American’s to be able
to handle any inconvenience with the grace that the Brits or the Canucks handle life’s little
flareups, lol.
I truly am glad that Telegragh, despite despising socialistic healthcare, was able to get his
cataracts taken care of by the American socialistic healthcare ( medicare ). I hope when my day comes, I’ll have the same options, but a lot of my older fellow Americans who are on socialistic healthcare truly hate socialistic healthcare, and they will do everything possible to make sure no other Americans but them will get socialistic healthcare. And I think they feel the same way about
the American socialistic pension plan called Social Security. They on it, they love it, but
nobody else coming up should get it, because that’s socialism ( but not for them ) LOL.
Regardless of party in power, our politicians are basically kleptocrats and will bend over backwards for anyone who supports their reelection to office. We have, in the past, purchased a year supply of pharmaceuticals abroad (Argentina comes to mind) for less than a 90 day refill.
That said, when I was involved in the IT business, one of our major procurement advantages was dealing with dozens of distributors (some of whom were grey market) of hundreds of manufacturers supplying hundreds of thousands of line items. Some of those had multiple channels and would offer lower prices for some classes of customers eg: OEM’s, installers of competitor’s product and so on. The advantage was amplified by using a custom piece of database software I wrote which absorbed hundreds of pricelists (first sent to me on floppy disk and ultimately downloaded on-line) and indicated the cheapest delivered cost of each line item my purchasing agents were searching for. Rather than taking the easy route of ordering everything from a single distributor, the software would create multiple purchase orders to whichever grouping of suppliers resulted in the lowest net cost to fulfill a customer’s order.
While we were awarded contracts because our prices were lowest, once awarded the nod, it was then our job to maximize the profit.
Regardless of party in power, our politicians are basically kleptocrats and will bend over backwards for anyone who supports their reelection to office.
Imagine the most horrible politician you can.
Someday, any given political office will be held by someone who makes THAT guy look GOOD.
Cede power over yourself and your neighbors to government officials accordingly.
Who gets a dental cleaning done in the middle of a global pandemic?
My timing was excellent. I went in for a cleaning, which had been scheduled 6 months ahead, in March of 2020, a couple weeks before the first case appeared in Michigan. That made my next cleaning in early September, at the tail of the summer attenuation, just before the back to school and religious rally gatherings sent infection rates soaring again. The next appointment was in April, just as my vaccination was fizzing up to full strength.
Bad for my dentist though. He caught it around August of 2020.
Also in early March 2020, I picked up a pack of TP from the fully stocked shelf at the grocery store. Two weeks later, the shelf was stripped bare, thanks to media hysteria. Also got a haircut in early March.
I filled it at the local Safeway with a GoodRx coupon for $346.
Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs only sells what they make. So not all drugs available.
Also look at Amazon Pharmacy and see what their cost is. They do both with and without insurance–your choice. Amazon sells a much larger variety of drugs, so more choices compared to Cost Plus.
One pill I take was $12 for a year’s supply (two 6-month fills–$6 ea)–and free delivery from Amazon.
I look every year at what I take and what is the cost to me. Express Scripts mail order has proven to be the cheapest for most of the drugs I take (usually 90-day fills, free shipping).
One important point: I do NOT order liquid drugs via mail order. I am in MN, so freezing temps in transit are possible–and are very bad for those items (especially injected diabetes drugs). Those I get hand-delivered from a local pharmacy, so I never have to worry about being out because a shipment got frozen in transit.
I tried Pillpack a few years ago. IMO, they were not ready for primetime because a liquid diabetes drug they shipped (UPS, I think) was not delivered on time and possibly got too warm. I used it because immediate use is no problem–but getting multiple boxes to cover multiple months (i.e. a three month supply) would destroy the drugs to be used in the second and third months (28-day usage/storage at room temp is a federal requirement for a variety of insulin products). It took me 2-3 months to get Pillpack to properly sort-and-package my pills, but there is lot of wasted packaging in their system.