I hope the OP now realizes the answer to this question is, ‘‘It’s complicated.’’
I assume this is a matter of marketing and profit for the stores that offer $4 generics. I imagine the $4 generics are a loss-leader for them, and if they can get away with charging more for popular BPs they will. Or maybe there are marketing agreements with the makers of the pills that restricts them from offering them at a discounted price.
I would think that would make sense for Wal-mart , but why would Walgreens use generics as a lose leader? My friends usually pick up their prescriptions at the drive through. Frankly $4 birth control bills seem like a great loss-leader.
http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/health/generic-retail-drug-pricing-and-states-2011.aspx
Also has anybody tried buying their pills mail-order?
Walgreens has to compete with Wal-Mart. Your link talks about this. Once Wal-Mart went to $4 generics (well, some generics are $4, certainly not all) everybody did, including my regional grocery store chains. As to why some BPs are included and others aren’t, I still think that that is a decision driven by profit, marketing, and marketing agreements the drug makers may have with the retailers. (Note the section in your link where it talks about how there may be 300 generics, but only 143 are offered at $4, it’s not just BPs.)
As to mail order, do you mean via websites or Canadian pharmacies? Or do you mean via a mail-order service provided through your insurance provider? I buy mine via the mail-order program offered through my health insurance.
I mean websites or Canadian pharmacies
As poor as I have been at times, I personally wouldn’t resort to illegal means of procuring pills that might not even contain the medications they claim to. No sense in buying something questionable that might not even prevent pregnancy or alleviate my symptoms - or have the Feds take notice.
I just looked at CanadaPharmacy.com and the prices for brand name packs aren’t different (Lo/Ovral, $383 for 6months) and they don’t sell a cheaper generic brand (or, not under names I recognize). So in my case that would actually be more expensive by $170 compared to the off-the-rack price for the generic brand BCP I take ($35).
It’s also terribly inconvenient if you don’t have $400 laying around, since the ONLY way to buy them is in units of 6. (some other brands offer units of 3, to be fair).
Canadadrugs is a popular one and it is cheaper than retail for many scripts. You only have to buy one month at a time though it seems the discounts kick in at 3 months. I have had friends who have done this before. The legitimate pharmacies require a real, valid unexpired prescription mailed or faxed. The Feds won’t prosecute you if you’re buying for yourself (and not reselling) but it’s not entirely above the fray. Seniors have been taking buses to Canada for awhile now.
However even if people have done so on the board, they won’t feel comfortable talking about it publicly, ya know?
ETA: Nuvaring is 90 clams for 3 x 1 month rings so $30 a month; I believe retail a friend payed 80 for one ring.
Checking that site’s prices, it looks more expensive by at least 1/3 for 3 months worth of my old pill. Mind you, that’s with my insurance the last time I bought it. A year prior to that, it would have been maybe $3 less for 3 months, and then there’s shipping and the wait time.
Plus people who want to buy drugs from elsewhere need to find legit sellers - I’ve heard complaints even here from people who bought through “Canadian” pharmacy mail order only to find their meds really didn’t ship from or through Canada at all.
So far the cheapest deal I’ve found without insurance is $9 a month for Sprintec or
Tri-Sprintec.
I’ve stated at least 3 times now, its $4 at Target for that particular brand (which as already thoroughly discussed in these pages, cannot be used by every woman).
Bolding mine. Sorry, I was just comparing retail prices. They seem to often beat retail prices sans insurance.
Plus I would think your co-pays are gonna be less than the general public’s because you’re (IIRC) on your hubby’s government insurance.
Out of curiosity OP, what sparked this? Girlfriend says hormones make her loopy? Could be, or could be that she just hasn’t tried enough options. Girlfriend says it’s too expensive? Very likely, as the pills with the low doses and slow-releasing options and new, synthetic hormones are the newer and therefore cost considerably more. Why not split the monthly cost if that’s the case?
On Target’s web site, they are listing it in the $9 column.
http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/page.jsp?title=pharmacy_generic_drugs_condition#secW
Okay guys, first of all, this differs by state. Some states don’t allow ultra-cheap no-insurance generics and some do so you’re probably referencing different states to begin with.
Secondly, the real issue at hand is the fact NOT EVERYONE CAN USE THE SAME ONE, as Hello Again mentioned repeatedly. This isn’t like buying the generic yogurt instead of Yoplait. This is how you think and feel and act and your sex drive on a daily basis as well as your health (blood clots, etc). One sub-$10/month pill sans insurance is not license to put the burden of birth control or hormonal birth control on the woman. For some, only a $90 retail/month Nuvaring will do (for one of myriad possible examples)
Good point about insurance - and I’m covered through my own work’s insurance as I prefer the payment benefits associated with having my healthcare centered around my workplace. (My husband pays for him to be covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield PPO; I have no idea what his insurance’s copay would be on the pill.) I think I was paying $30/pack with insurance for it at one point, but that pill went generic and I think I paid half that afterwards. But for the last few years prior to just over a year ago when I switched to IUD, I was on it continuously (throw out the placebo week, start the new pack right away) so I was paying for just over 16 packs per year, rather than the usual 13.
And that’s a good question - the answer is completely “it depends on so many things.” If the OP is comparison-shopping for a SO, it’s a nice thought, but may not produce good results. If it’s “why are women shelling out all this money when they could just pay $4/month,” the answer is “it may not be available in your area, or at that price, it may not make your health problems better, it could make other health problems worse.”
If you look at what I posted in #110, you can see that I specified without insurance. As far as I can tell the Target list is the national list. There is a foot note at the bottom about the generics may be more expensive in certain states.
I had already mentioned that there doesn’t appear to be a universally acceptable form of birth control.
As far as I can tell Tri-Sprintec doesn’t seem to be significantly better or worse than average in this regard.
http://www.drugs.com/comments/ethinyl-estradiol-norgestimate/tri-sprintec-for-contraception.html
Since I’m trying to figure out the actual cost of birth control, I hope people will mention it when it is the subsidized price they are talking about.
I’m in California (one of the listed states there) and I pay $10 a month for Sprintec (I literally just called in a refill on it right now before posting this and double checked the price). Still not awful, but I’m fortunate that I can take that and don’t require some crazy expensive situation. Over the last 11 years, I’ve easily tried 10 different pill formulations (some with horrific results) until I found that “Ortho Cyclen” (not Ortho TRI Cyclen) works well enough for me. No idea why, but there you go. And apparently, Sprintec is the generic of that.
It’s all terribly complicated.
For example, the list price of mine is $35, the “covered” price under my husband’s insurance is $25.
HOWEVER, under MY insurance I have a deductible, and so I pay upfront the first $50 for prescriptions. When my packs are NOT covered under my insurance because of the deductible, I pay $23 “negotiated rate” (which you’ll notice is cheaper than the covered rate on my husband’s plan). When it IS covered I pay $1.16 a pack (I have kickass prescription coverage). Since the deductible resets every 6 months and we use no other prescription medications, I end up paying $23 for the first & 2nd, $5 for the 3rd, and $1.16 for the 4th, 5th & 6th packs in any given 6 month cycle. This averages out to about $10 per pack.
Jeez o pete. It’s enough to give a gal a headache. BTW, I found this interesting article which explains how the Federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 had an (apparently) unintended consequence of discouraging BCP companies from providing low-cost pill packs to clinics.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1651473_1651472_1650461,00.html
Well, that question’s easy: when you have a bastardized model of both government and employer provided healthcare (that’s tax free) and people buying from limited supplies restricted by state and hospital government-sanctioned monopolies (that’s not tax free), you’re going to have fucked up pricing that differs by the time of the day and the phase of the moon. You saw it yourself with the generic restrictions on Target’s website.
If everyone bought health insurance on the open market like car insurance (and you could NOT be dropped for a preexisting condition so long as you paid your premiums) it’d be a hell of a lot cheaper and very easy to compare apples to apples.
Yup. Going on three pages devoted to Female Troubles…