Dec 19 2008
Name Brand Prescription (Rx) Drugs
I have a bone to pick, but I’m not sure with who. It’s either with my medical insurance company, or with the makers of prescription drugs. Or maybe it’s even with both. You tell me.
I used to be on my husbands’ insurance through his employer for dental and medical. When I would pick up my Rx’s from the store, I would normally pay anywhere from $10 to $25 co-pay for each Rx, and that was it. Always. Forever. Then in September he switched employers and I decided to get insurance through my employer. Let me start by saying that I’ve never had insurance ever in my entire life until I got married, which was in 2005, so I do not have much experience with this type of situation. Maybe that’s another reason I have a bone to pick. I didn’t know what I was getting into!
Anyways, so I signed up with the insurance provided by my employer, and things were fine. At the time (October 1st is when my insurance kicked in), I was taking two name brand Rx’s that were not available in generic form. I was also taking one Rx for which I specifically asked to have the name brand, but they wouldn’t give it to me, said my insurance company wouldn’t cover the name brand. Ok whatever. So I get my Rx’s filled in October, things are fine. I pay the normal under $30 co-pay amounts and go about my business. November comes along, same thing happens. Fine. Good. Now comes December… I go to pick up my two name brand Rx’s, and they tell me I have to pay $150. I got angry, because I never had to pay it in the past, so why now? I left the store, did NOT pay for my Rx’s, and called the insurance company. They informed me that I have to pay a $150 co-pay per year for name brand prescriptions, and since I haven’t paid yet for 2008, I will have to pay this month, and then again in January to take care of 2009, if I want to use name brand Rx’s. I don’t remember getting anything in the mail telling me I had to do anything like this at all. So basically they told me that I’m screwed. People like me that need to take name brand Rx’s because a generic isn’t available, does not even exist, we are screwed! Either pay a ton of money, or stop taking your meds. SO, I stopped taking my meds. Screw THEM! Do they REALLY need my money that badly that they have to charge such an ungodly amount every year for name brand Rx’s? Does it REALLY cost that much money to market and produce NAME BRAND prescriptions that they have to charge people that much, as opposed to the generic counterpart?
The thing that REALLY gets me that I didn’t even think about until just tonight (this prescription incident happened a week and a half ago), is that when I specifically asked for the name brand of one of my other prescriptions, they said NO, my insurance doesn’t cover it. BUT, they DO cover it because they are trying to make me pay a huge co-pay for name brands. THAT is fishy, makes NO sense at all. Does it make sense to you? Why would they make me pay for something that I can’t even get?!?!?!? That makes my blood boil. I can’t even begin to think of a logical explanation for that right there.
In conclusion, all I have to say is thank GOD for over the counter GERD medication. Without it, I would probably be dead right now from pain and agony. Maybe I’ll save the GERD topic for another blog. And also, beware of insurance companies…or of prescription drug makers. I’m still not sure which one is the problem causer.
What I think is horrible is that WITH insurance, a visit to the doctor still costs me $100. I can’t imagine what someone pays who is uninsured, if that’s still what I have to fork over when my kids get pneumonia.
And prescriptions are just as bad.
The truth is, though, that insurance companies exist to make a profit. Their goal is to get more money from you and from your employer–a LOT more money–than they every pay out for your care. Insurance is really there so that, if you are horribly injured and in need of long-term care, you don’t go bankrupt.
Yet, with costs still so high, how can one not go bankrupt anyway?