That is such a wonderful sentence. Thank you for sharing it.
4 Likes
Ah, the old Mafia “protection” racket.
3 Likes
Difference here is that Costco has a lot of leverage compared to your average small or independent pharmacy.
Some may not know this but anybody can use their pharmacy. You don’t need to be a Costco member. The downside is you need to go to Costco (aka hell on Earth).
4 Likes
Yup, you just reminded me of the very fine concrete back patio my dad got in trade for family therapy services.
1 Like
The high cost of prescriptions hit me in the face when I took over managing meds for old people, example: Seroquel at CVS = $1490 for 90 supply. Costco = $29. There you are at the counter knowing that your patient must have this med and they’re running out tomorrow – what do you do? The CVS counter girl just looked at me, “you want them or not?” Thank goodness someone in line heard me and took mercy, “check with Costco…you don’t need a membership to use the pharmacy”. Thank you stranger – You’re a good person.
10 Likes
Perhaps the policy had changed, my old Pharmacy Manager was nice, or it was a WAG policy, but in the cases where the copay was more than the cash price of the script, for the two years I worked at Walgreens as a Pharm Tech, the patient only paid the Cash Price (you can tell based on the “cash price” in the corner of the paper under the copay price).
And the same drug costs $5 for a three month supply in New Zealand.
True, but if you are a member as I am, it costs $45 (more or less) for a year, and you can sign up with their online pharmacy and get prescriptions sent directly to you by mail, so you don’t have to go inside unless you choose to. Once you have the account set up, they track your prescriptions and send you a notice when it is due for a refill. Your doctor can also communicate directly to them for new prescriptions. Not a bad deal. And prices are very competitive.
2 Likes
This! As a veterinarian, we often have to use human pharmacies for things that we can’t regularly stock due to economics (minimum quantity purchases combined with expiration dates etc…). We usually do some calling around before writing the script, and it’s insane what the price differences can be. For example, I had one patient whose vial of meds was going to run $320 at Sav-on/Osco, $180 at Walgreens, and $120 at Costco…
3 Likes
+1 I typically get my pet prescriptions (as long as they don’t need to be compounded) from Costco because it’s usually cheapest.
2 Likes
And, of course, it gets more complicated from here. Depending on your unique situation it might be better for you, financially, to pay the copay. It could contribute to some out of pocket limit, or something, and therefore if you know you will have other bills getting yourself over some limit might mean the copay is essentially free.
The reason I hear for this is that Australian and NZ health providers negotiate with drug companies to get good prices, but each of our markets must be smaller than any US market, so the argument must be wrong.
Just wanted to mention Blink Health (blinkhealth.com) for anyone who doesn’t have insurance and for whom generic versions of their medications are available and work for them. I pay more or less what I did back when I had insurance through an employer for most of our drugs (generics). Maybe slightly higher in some cases but generally pretty affordable. (The worst is for a while I was on an insurance plan with a prescription deductible and low coverage for non-generics, and one of my family’s prescriptions at the time was non-generic and cost hundreds of dollars for the first few refills of the year.) Non-generics are pretty expensve via Blink still (or drugs with delivery mechanisms the manufacturer can mark up like inhalers etc. ugh.)
I have a two prescriptions that I don’t run through my insurance for this reason. It is insane.
many states have laws that make it illegal for the pharmacist to volunteer this information unless you ask
That’s not what the article says. The section and graphic about state laws describe states that ban the gag order.
1 Like
Someone should tell him that if he wants to appear to be saving the NHS that he needs to add a zero in the middle of that figure.
Mental health care could do with 20bn in funding alone.
2 Likes
Let alone the problem of social care - being half the cause of lack of hospital beds.
2 Likes
Looks like May is trying to get ahead of that one:
If the Tories put as much time and effort into governing the country on behalf of everyone as they did jockeying for power within the party the Grenfell disaster might never have happened.
1 Like
Many things might be improved or have been prevented if the Tories spent more time governing rather than internal squabbling. But I somehow feel Grenfell has been much, much longer in the incubation than the current govt. No doubt things the recent Tory govts have done can be pointed to, but I believe other things of longer standing also played a role. But yeah - fuck the fuckwit Tories whose loyalty to themselves is such a paradox these days, but still outranks loyalty to the country that elected them to govern, not play personal power games with each other.
1 Like
NZ has a drug buying agency canned Pharmac that negotiates prices for drugs for the whole country.
