I’ve heard much the same from others as what I’ve read in this thread, so I asked my doctor even before I turned 60. He wrote a prescription and warned me that my insurance likely wouldn’t cover it, and that it would cost $200.
I was lucky and my insurance did pay for it, but from what I’ve heard about shingles I was more than willing to crank out the money.
I’m way under sixty, but then seeing as my dad’s going through it for the second time and as he’s absolutely miserable, I’m thinking of asking my doctor about it. On the other hand, it’s so expensive.
I tried to get the vaccine when I turned 50 (once you’ve heard a few stories of people you know who’ve had shingles, you really want it) and was told $300. Couldn’t afford it. A few years later I switched insurers and they did cover it after 50, so I got it immediately. I wonder if that company looked at its actual stats and saw that antivirals, pain meds and doctor visits cost a lot more than vaccines for the 50 to 60 age group.
I am 44 and had shingles in October 2013. On the right side of my forehead and creeping precariously close to my eye. Very uncomfortable. Surprised my doctor a bit. I took acyclovir and steroids. At my followup visit, my doc seemed to think that the cost of the vaccine - I guess it would be more expensive for me because I am under 60 - would outweigh any benefits I might get by having the shot.
Whooah! The vaccine isn’t perfect, as in some people who get it still get the shingles, but way less intense. I am 63, had chicken pox at age 8, have had the vaccine at 60, have not had shingles. My spouse had shingles very badly on three dermatomes at age 51. He was vaccinated in 2009, age 58 ( while in hospital after a rather large stroke). He had a recurrence, meaning the repeat case happened on one of the same dermatomes, in 2012, but MUCH smaller. The pain lasted a month, and was really best treated with longer duration of acyclovir. Acyclovir suppresses ALL herpes viruses. I treat some women with chronic post herpetic vulvovaginal pain with 1-3 months of acyclovir, and so far the selected cases have all been successful. Cf Tim Hlavinka MD at (if memory serves) UT Austin. He is a urologist who deals with herpetic infections and vulvodynia, not to mention having a great deal of compassion and common sense. Shingles has variable amounts of pain. It can be REALLY bad, and I’ve found lidocaine patches to be an important part of the treatment. All in all, the vaccine is quite cost effective, not to mention the decrease in pain and suffering.
I had shingles in my twenties, and it was one of the most painful diseases I’ve ever had. There were no antivirals back then, and between the shingles themselves and the pain afterwards, it was almost a year before I was back to normal. I cannot get the vaccine, so I just hope I don’t get it again.
I am under 60, had shingles, did not get the vaccine.
Yikes! Is that what it costs?
I have Medicare Advantage, and they fully covered my shingles shot. Not even so much as a co-pay!
(Well, maybe there was a co-pay. I visited the doctor for other reasons, and had a co-pay just for the visit. While there, I asked about the shingles shot, and got one on the spot. The co-pay for the office visit may have covered the whole visit, whatever might have happened. But there was no extra charge for the shot.)
All the stories I read about shingles are just too gruesome. And I had chickenpox too. So I’m glad I got the shot.
I had shingles multiple times in my 20s and 30s - I was lucky, because it wasn’t that bad for me - each episode seemed to be able to trace back to personal stress or being run-down from overwork - and it manifest as a narrow horizontal band of rash around my body.
The first time it was diagnosed (by my doctor) as shingles, it was a stripe of sore little blisters across my upper arms, upper chest and back. Next time it happened (months later), it was a little lower down - and the time after that, lower still.
Eventually, it seemed to run out of space on my body and I never had another clear outbreak of it (although I did and do still sometimes get episodes of the associated stiff neck, sore throat and high temperature that used to precede the rash).
It was never unbearably painful for me (and I’m generally not good at bearing pain) - calamine lotion and OTC painkillers were sufficient.
I had them at at an early age ~12. It was terrible, the best description I can give, is the way thr Dr explained it to my parents. It feeels like someone is touching you ( on the back in my case) with red hot coals. Never had the vaccanation.
For some reason I know many people who have had shingles, most of them much younger than 60. They have all said they wouldn’t wish it on their worst enemies. My dad had it in his 60’s. It was all over his head and face and into his eyes, and it lasted several months. Fortunately there was no lasting impact on his vision and he hasn’t had a recurrence. A good friend of mine has HSV2, and she told me at one time that she read somewhere that some people think HSV in ones system may afford some protection against shingles but I’ve not seen that anywhere myself. I’ll have to tell her about the Tagamet connection.
I am not yet 50 but after what I’ve seen friends and family go through, I will definitely get the shingles vaccine, even if I have to collect returnable pop cans from the streets to pay for it!
I don’t know why people are such wusses over shingles. The most severe pain I ever experienced in my life was when my tooth cracked and it felt like an ice pick shot into my brain. I never had the experience of “had to sit down” until that moment. I’d say that was the only time I would rate a pain over 8 out of 10 in my life. My broken bone I would rate maybe a 3-4. I even drove to the emergency room by myself. Physical therapy was higher than the broken bone actually, as my ligaments locked up and had to be forced to loosen, I’d say maybe a 5-6. Shingles, from what I can remember, would be a 3.
Because of this thread I emailed my doctor, asking, “I am XX years old. Should I get the vaccine for Shingles.”
He replied with, among other things that, “If you are under 60 years of age, most insurance company’s will not reimburse you for the vaccine shot.”
Anyone else hear of this?
We gonna talk about asshole insurance companies?
Our dental insurance provider came to talk to my company. She said, we cover 50% of all procedures. I said, my dentist said you guys only cover up to X. She said, yes, 50% up to X. Then I said, it’s not 50% then, you should just say “we cover up to X,” saying that you cover 50% is false advertising and illegal.
53, had chicken pox under the age of 5.
I am a guinea pig in a program where they are testing how it titres out when combined with the MMR vax. A total of 5 office visits, assorted shots, bloodwork that confirms my titre and I still get paid … I love being a guinea pig 
My doctor says it’s a no-brainer for those over 60 and covered, and thinks that insurance would save money by covering it for younger people (over 50). Now, I would think that insurance companies would be better at crunching the numbers, but he had some interesting arguments and raised tangential issues that he thinks they may be ignoring, and mentioned research results that supported his conclusion. Unfortunately I don’t remember any of those tangential issues or the studies.
I’m 56 and will probably get one promptly after age 60. My doc said that while he thought it was good public policy to do it earlier, the difference in odds wouldn’t matter much from the standpoint of an individual, so he didn’t have any problem with me waiting a few years until it’s covered.
I think my doc is smart to recognize the difference between good public policy versus personal decisions. Or maybe he’s just smart enough to figure out that I believe that, and tell me what I want to hear. 
BTW, shingles can have very different symptoms for different people. For some, it’s very painful. My (adoptive) mother had it around age 80 and had no pain, but got the latticework marks on her skin. IIRC, though, there can be serious side effects in a minority of patients.
I had shingles and insurance. I had to take a week off from work and paid $15 for one week of medication. That’s less than the $200 people are reporting, uninsured.
Having been admitted into the infectious diseases ward overnight, yeah. The shot is cheaper.
Why would they require that? Everybody who has had chicken pox already has the virus in their bodies.
I assume the doctors think that not everyone has had chicken pox, and a hospital wouldn’t want patients who are sick to get sicker.
The nurses (and everyone else) put on paper overgowns and face masks every time they went in and out of the room, and threw them into the trash as they left. It was a little over the top.