Well, Car & Driver won’t tell you about it either, unless the damn thing actually arrives. I can’t tell you how many years I subscribed to that rag, and I don’t think I ever went an entire year without missing a couple of issues. And they did nothing about it, I tell you! Damn their eyes!
Anyway, yet another entertaining yarn from Scylla. All is right with the world.
I think I saw this in a Gilbert & Sullivan once.
I know the ‘subscription’ thing got the attention of this old circulation guy.
And am I the only one hearing ‘Randall’ from Clerks as the voice of the pharmacist here?
I can’t be the only one. On no, not me.
mhendo, of course they work just as well. They’re the exact same thing. Same amount of the same active ingredient, administered the same way, at the same time intervals.
That Lilly and Glaxxo-Wellcome have ever been able to convince anyone otherwise is the real scam.
I feel for you Scylla and loved your OP. Things never are what we are lead to believe.
[slight hijack]
As for costs, I use Blue Crap/Blue Shit. We have to pay 25%, they pay 75%. Well, when Fin_woman was pregnant and had hyperemesis gravidarum (fancy words for massive vomiting during pregnancy), she was on Zofran (a anti-nausea drug created originally for chemotherapy side effects) cost us about $200.00 (no, not the pre-insurance price but our 25% co-pay). Well worth it since Fin_woman was able to stop puking.
[/slight hijack]
Lets hear it for the National Health Service !
If you pay for prescriptions the charge is £6.30 per item and many people don’t have to pay
Granted, there are generally huge waiting lists for anything serious - but it does kind of work
Russell
Ah, she’s taking Imitrex, isn’t she? I take it too, but I throw up when I have migraines, so I have to use the injectible form of Imitrex.
Want to know how much that costs? It’s slightly more than the pills. It’s $140. For two doses. Yes, 2 doses. $140 for TWO freaking doses.
My $15 “subscription” plan graciously allows me to have two migraines per month. How nice of them. :rolleyes:
According to one of the doctors I work for, it is a rare occasion when the “brand name” actually does work better than the generic. I did hear him point it out for one prescription, though, so it can happen. When getting a prescription filled, usually the form will have something like “generic equivalent acceptable” as an option - ask your physician if it’s OK to get a generic version. There may not be one available, or there might be an actual medical reason to not go with the generic. (Generics might, for instance, have different buffering agents, different time-release, etc.)
Geez, now I feel better about my three migraine pills costing $35. Uh-oh…<math part of the brain clicking its gears>…that’s $115 for nine. Not much better than Fugazi’s case. And I only feel a little better than BiblioCat, as I’m allowed three migraines a month.
Apparently, nobody at an HMO has ever had a migraine.
I’m glad to see that people realize the problem is with the insurance. I worked in retail pharmacy for almost 9 years, and you wouldn’t believe how many people thought I was shafting them by charging the correct co-pay.
If you get a good, friendly pharmacist who isn’t busy tearing their hair out, they can call and see what your plan covers. (At least that’s what we used to do, before we got stuck filling one prescription per minute.) I’m not saying “shaft the insurance company!”, but the pharmacist can call your doctor and tell them to write the prescription accordingly so you get the best benefit. (Like if your insurance offers a discount on a 90 day supply of maintenance medications, they can usually get your doctor to write it that way.)
My only advice is this: make friends with your pharmacist, if it’s possible. If they recognize you as the one person who comes in and you’re always nice, they will go the extra mile for you when they can. I won’t lie; there were several customers that I spent hours on the phone with insurance companies for, because they were the only customers throughout the day that didn’t act like complete jackasses when something was different.
People who came up and threw their prescriptions at me, huffed and puffed when I told them it was going to be 10 minutes, or better yet, started right off the bat screaming at me about something? Ooh, looky here, a rejection from your insurance company. Guess you’ll have to pay full price, or call them yourself.
I’m so glad I’m out of retail pharmacy. 
[hijack]
Skerri. two funny pharmacist stories:
I was getting a prescription for Allegra filled and insurance said I would have to pay it all. I asked the pharmacist why it was so. He said the insurance company rejected due to too many fills. I was surprised so he called the company. All I could hear was his side of the conversation (which was something like…)
“I don’t know. I’ll check”
to me - “Is it for you?”
“No, it is for him.”
“No, I don’t know what year he was born but he is not 80 years old.”
“No problem, I’ll take care of it.” Seems another pharmacist used the profile of somebody with the same name - different state - way different age.
When my wife got the $200+ Zofran, the pharmacist took her aside and asked if she ever had gotten this prescription before. It was the first time and the pharmacist apologized up and down about the cost and that she even triple-checked with the insurance company. From then on, 30+ day supply via mail order for $35. 
[/hijack]
If you don’t want to bother the pharmacist, you can also ask your insurance co. for a copy of their “formulary” which is a listing of all the drugs they will pay for, as well as any restrictions. This information may well be online - I was browsing mine a while back and found odd little nuggets like they’ll only allow 10 tablets of Cipro (an antibiotic) twice every six months. (Aha! So this is why the pharmacy wanted to charge me $192 for a 14-pill Rx!)
In this day of mis-managed health care, it’s up to the consumer to keep track of how their insurance works and exactly what it will cover. When you’re sick, it is a major bummer to have to be micro-managing your doctor and pharmacist, but it’s the only way to keep a lid on costs.
Checking in from the third leg of the triangle, I used to work call center for two different insurance companies and I’m sorry but I have little sympathy for people who don’t understand their basic insurance benefits and then get snippy about it (I mean of course mean-snippy, not Scylla-snippy). Insurance is one of the more heavily regulated industries and insurance companies are required to disclose deductibles, copays, limitations, exclusions, etc. It’s all in your policy and, if you don’t want to read through the entire policy, check the schedule of benefits.
I work with HIV…
My insurance doesn’t cover most of the anti-hiv drugs.
I hate my job.
CRorex, I know exactly what you mean. One of our pharmacy techs at Wal-Mart also worked part-time in the NICU with the HIV babies. She unfortunately had a needle-stick, so she came and got her meds on workman’s comp at our pharmacy. The bills for the hospital were OUTRAGEOUS.
I spent hours fighting with Medicaid to get people’s prescriptions filled for HIV meds. It’s just totally amazing to me how 3 months worth of one prescription medication can cost upwards of $10,000.
Yes, people should know their policies, but that would only happen in a perfect world. The only reason I mentioned talking to your pharmacy staff is because we have to deal with this mess on a daily basis. Hell, when I worked at Wal-Mart, I knew most of the insurance company policies regarding prescriptions by heart. Yeah, some days it’s difficult to get to talk to a pharmacist, but they usually have a general idea of what’s going on with insurance companies.
You’re all scaring me. Right now I enjoy my life as the university-enrolled, 21-year-old son of an auto worker in the US. In 18 months I’ll be out of undergrad school, hopefully teaching somewhere or in law school. In the case of the latter, no worries, Dad has me covered until I’m 25. In the case of the former, yikes, I better develop an even stronger immune system and avoid injuring my knees seriously. I don’t want to deal with this crap.
Not to scare you any further, but you better double check that. If you’re over 21 and not a full-time student, Dad may not be able to cover you on his policy. You might get a 3-month grace period after you graduate, but once you’re no longer in school full-time, you’re on your on for insurance.
Better stock up on the Flintstone Chewables and Snoopy Band-Aids. 
If he’s in law school he’ll be covered by 90% of the HMOs/PPOs out there, BiblioCat. There are a couple of hard cases.
I have no insurance. The irony is, I’ve twice worked for insurance companies (once directly BC/BS and once indirectly where I was part of the HMO doctor’s group’s office company for a temp agency). Neither time did I have insurance.
Scylla, you must be on an HMO through your work. The lowest BC/BS deductable for prescription drugs (non-generic) on a private plan is $250. Per person (up to 2 people).
That’s right. Get a prescription filled for Mrs. Scylla and you’ll be paying until you’ve met that $250. Need a prescription yourself? Another $250 before bennies kick in.
Health care in this country sucks.