[alincdytyourmeds]

I saw my pdoc again and am trying a different med again. This time it was abilify and that stuff is expensive! I got one of the discount cards from my pdoc so I only had to pay 5 dollars but that is only for 3 months. Between t and pdoc and meds. My $10 hr job (with decent insurance) just doesn't always mesh. Especially at the beginning of the year with a high deductible. If the soul sucking depression isn't enough let's add poverty to it. (Sorry for the little rant, but you guys are the only ones who would understand.)

[raspberrytorte]

I honestly don't know how we afford it!

[Altarian]

I'm not saying i know what you are feeling because i can't stand when people say that to you. Before i moved back to where i'm from and before my wife had really good paying job with good insurance i would live on cheap food like hotdogs and raman in order to pay for my med's. After i was married her insurance helped cover the cost. Once we moved back to my home turf i used the benefit's my father has as a tribal member since my wife quit her good job and insurance. It's hard and i wish i could tell people the secret to meds. Try site's like NeedyMeds.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I use patient assistance programs (making $10/hr you meet the income guidelines and they will make exceptions when you meet some criteria but not others (like you have insurance but not good insurance for paying for drugs); in my case I have Medicare but would have to pay hundreds out of pocket for meds. So I submit the patient assistance applications with a little note about why I can't afford the meds that I really want to take even if I do have insurance/sometimes am slightly over the income guidelines. And I've never been turned down and have gotten a number of meds this way.

I have also used Rx Outreach | Patient Assistance Program, Discount Prescription Drugs which deeply discounts the costs of meds (like sometimes the cost for a 3 months supply is much less than the co-pay for one month) and www.xubec.com does the same although I've never used it.

Prices, Coupons and Information - GoodRx lets you enter the drug name and shows what pharmacy is cheapest with any coupons and you print the coupon right there. I've saved $30+ with that page a couple of times.

I'm fortunate to get a discount on therapy as well or I wouldn't be able to afford that.

It's still expensive, healthcare is definitely what I spent the most on (including my hospital bill from the summer and I'm not thinking about the upcoming bill for my upcoming hospitalization tacked onto that), but those things have helped me. Patient assistance programs have saved me thousands of dollars alone. (You just go to the website, search for patient assistance, print the application and take it to your dr. and then send it with a note about why you need an exemption).

[alincdytyourmeds]

Thanks fortunately I also have a hubby that has income too. so I don't qualify for most programs, but with 3 kids one in college every dollar counts.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Patient assistance is probably out but check rxoutreach. It's got a really generous income guideline. And the goodrx stuff is available to anyone (I always want to type in gooddrugs and that is NOT right--that sends you to a marijuana dispensary).

[Standup2me]

I have a really good health care plan at work.
We just have to pay the dispensing fee
Doctor's fees are covered under our provincial health care program
Thank heavens!!!!

We had to get Obamacare because my partner insisted. We pay the premium and barely can afford the doctor visit. I just keep going till I run out of money. We haven't had hardly any work this year....when we went to the hospital, it satisfied the deductible or whatever that it was no longer out of pocket, but that all started over.

Might go get committed that way the rest of the year is free!

[cmorales]

Well, initially I started at a free clinic. The clinic helped me get Med-Cal. I still have it and it covers my doctor visits and meds. I'm currently looking for a real job and, honestly, fear what "real life" has to offer, meaning I am anxious about the day I make too much money for Medi-Cal (if that day ever comes) and yet not enough money to afford good enough insurance and thus am cut off my meds - you know that middle ground. That happened to my cousin (she has depression and anxiety, got a decent job and then cut off and couldn't afford her meds).

[hopeless2015]

I have ins through work that's pretty good, but I'm to my eyeballs in hospital bills and filing bankruptcy between lost wages last year and my gambling addiction. I have a discount card for my Latuda or I wouldn't be able to afford it either

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[gina_re]

This may not work for everyone, but if I find a drug is too expensive for me, I tell my pdoc I can't afford it and he can prescribe something else. I know that doesn't solve the problem, but I at least let him know that it is a concern and to try alternatives.

[Nix]

We pay out of pocket for my appointments, so I just have to schedule them as far away from each other as I'm allowed and come to places like PC for support in between. (There is no support group near me that I'm aware of.) Thankfully, we have a house and we're currently trying to refinance it to help pay for my appointments. We also had to take out a huge loan to pay for one of my hospital visits since the insurance didn't cover it. It's stressful.

I agree with the above poster; my pdoc is very considerate of my financial concerns and tries to prescribe drugs that I can get cheaply. It helps to let them know your situation, as I'm sure many are in a similar situation.

[BiPoloar2112]

You have to jump through a lot of hoops and delivery is slow but Canada Drug Center offers cheap alternatives to US pharmacies when you do not have any insurance at all.
My generic Abilify 10 mg is $70 for 100 pills versus $165 for 30 at the local pharmacy.

[Unrigged64072835]

I'm really fortunate. I'm retired military and live near a military hospital so my pdoc sends the scripts there and i get my meds for free. I'm also on Medicare so that takes care of the hospital visits and most of the therapy visits. My military health care takes care of the rest. This helps make it worth 22 years of sacrifice to my country (except for the PTSD--that I could've done without). There's no way I could afford all the med changes and hospital stays otherwise.

[scatterbrained04]

No joke. I get double whammied because my son has mental health problems too. We have 6 prescriptions between the two of us and pdoc visits x 2. I try to schedule mine as far apart as possible. I'm a single parent, so just one income. No assistance. Can't afford therapy for either one of us. I'd be in trouble if either one of us needed inpatient care. I've considered stopping all treatment for myself due to financial reasons.

When I didn't have any insurance or money for that matter, I went to a clinic that charged on a sliding poverty scale which meant I qualified for the minimal amount of $0.00...then Obamacare jerked it up.

[wiretwister]

have good insurance just a co pay ... pdoc does not know but I take 1/2 of what he rx's ... get 2 months per refill ... have talked him into appt every four months trying for every 6 to cut back ... gave up T just too much $ ...

[Wander]

As I live in Australia the health system is different. I pay $150 a month for health insurance and have my hospital stays completely covered. As I am on a government disability pension I also only have to pay $6 a month for most scripts although some, like Lamogtrigine, are not covered so I can be out of pocket around $1 per pill. I am so thankful for the healthcare in Australia and I hope they don't change it as some are trying to do.

[Takeshi]

As I live in Japan..... yes I pay for the gov health plan, sliding scale thing according to my income, and this reminds me, Not exactly. They gonna charge me no matter what, I won't be able to afford that. Fortunately or not, for the time being I care for myself outside of the system.

[wildflowerchild25]

For a year I got free samples for the Invega. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford it. Currently though I owe $1500 to the hospital and about $6000 to the partial care program. I just keep paying what I can per month so I don't get taken to collections but I can't imagine I'll ever pay it off, especially since I can't seem to get through a year without a hospitalization and stay in the partial program. Though I'm hopeful for this year as I've gotten through a wretched depression without going to a higher level of care. I really only need hospitalization for mixed episodes and I don't have those on the Invega.

[gayleggg]

I have to keep delving into savings to cover all my copays. I don't know what I'm going to do when I run out of saving.

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[Takeshi]

"How do you afford to be bipolar?"

Please allow me to try a little experiment of mine here. I will rephrase that question and ask all of you, instead:

"What price do you pay to be a bipolar person". Is that okay? that sounds pretty bad but never mind that, you get my meaning, right?

It's all about affordable healthcare and the solution they provide. We do pay a lot of price just to live the life itself, a lot of sacrifices, in terms of career, watching kids growing up, putting food on the table, etc. Finances, sure, it gets expensive especially under the Obama care? Well, you guys are the expert on that sort of things, I suppose it's the result of all the difficulties we have to face, so that even if the financial side of things are sorted, your bipolar life may not be as rosy as you may think. We've all seen already that some of bipolar folks are well off, managing their medication as well as their careers. We all wish that we are successful at life, but that won't be the case for everyone. Life beat us up and we get back up. We all have one shot at life, things have to go up. So what can we do about it?

I'm not trying to belittle the current financial difficulties that some of you are facing, I'm just going to suggest that how about we look for alternatives. Medications. Part of this gigantic economic waves that we all have to ride through, being bipolar, might mean that you'll be on medication as an only method to your recovery. The best evidenced based treatment is saying that you'll be on meds forever. And you'll still likely to be depressed most of the time.

Bipolar Advantage

I just started watching his video on youtube, he condesed 55hrs of material into just 8 minutes, he called it introspection. As I started talking to you here, I think it wasn't too bad to call us here as 'bipolar person(s)'. First and foremost, we are person(s) who wished to have a happy and productive life. So to be able to afford to be the person we wish to be, this issue should be looked at from all sides, by that I mean we work with being a bipolar. Obviously, I'm not a Tom Wooten, so I should stop myself here. I haven't even heard what he does, the alternatives, treatment or otherwise, that's what I'm saying that we should look out for too.

Well, before I leave, let me just say what my agenda is, right here. I personally think that the talk in this part of the forum and the medication talk is way disproportional, psych central itself host his blogs, we are the ones going through the life of being bipolar.

Hmm...so, we don't talk as much as I think about medication here? I admit maybe I was wrong. I had a point though, gave you something to think about? I know y'all try to reduce, use less medication and all that. And those branded meds costs too much, just like paying extra for branded clothes or something, I say that we should still think about this issues and discuss more.

Thanks for reading.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

In the US it is extremely expensive to be bipolar in the financial sense. I used to make a lot of money and over 10% of it went to bipolar annually. Now I live on a small income and I don't know what percent goes to bipolar but an estimate would be 25% roughly, if I didn't forget anything. That's before food, gas, anything. I am excluding dental and vision although dental is a significant expense for me. And it doesn't include anything to cover the large hospital bill from the summer and another one that is coming that will be probably more. I am going to have to beg for financial assistance after that or I'll be paying over 10% of my income just on that one bill. And my income is not big enough.

Obamacare didn't change anything for me so I can't speak about it. Our system still has some big holes and we all fall into them. We aren't being negative, it's just that it is a fact that our healthcare system still has a lot of problems. Some of those are due to work themselves out in the next several years. Others are just the way it is and hopefully someday someone can fix them although I doubt it right now. These are things like having a pretty large co-pay for Medicare admissions despite people on Medicae rarely having much money (my current situation). It goes on and on, but really the cost we are discussing is that it is tremendously expensive to deal with this illness and it can be very difficult financially no matter what you do to try to fight it.

[brokenandalone1234]

I afford my meds by only getting enough to get me to my next check and then I buy more till my next check. I have a great paying job ($11.50/hr) but the insurance sucks. I have a high dectiuble on my insurance before it covers 100%

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Gayleggg and brokenandalone, did you see my post about some ways to help with med costs? Even if you think your income disqualifies you try them; some have pretty high income guidelines (Astra-Zeneca meds are covered for people with income a lot higher than mine and I am on the higher end for SSDI and they have exempted me for having insurance for years) and RXOutreach has high income guidelines. I don't know about Xubec. The goodrx website works regardless of insurance, just shows you where to go.

My family dr's practice has someone whose job is helping low-income people get meds and these are all tricks I've learned from her (and my pdoc). Last year I only paid I think about $100 out of pocket for meds (I have a good Part D plan that they will have to pry out of my hands before I give it up and I got Seroquel, Nexium, Emsam, and Amitiza free through patient assistance but I'm still on lots of other meds and was able to make it work). I also know RXoutreach can help substantially even when a med is really expensive. I have asthma that is triggered allergies to chemicals, mold exposure, and lots of environmental stuff and have one med that helps control that. When it went generic and I couldn't get it free I was really panicked (uninsured then) and asked my dr if I could stop taking it. He told me that I absolutely had to take this medication, it was potentially the difference between a life-threatening asthma attack and avoiding one. Rxoutreach immediately started selling the generic at something like $50 for 3 months. Still a lot of money every 3 months but not so much per month and compared to out of pocket it was nothing. Don't give up on those options until you try them, you might be surprised.

My state has a program that if you have any assistance including disablity medicaid (spend-down medicaid) you can get this prescription discount program. The prices on it are several times greater than I've found with these other programs.