[seanengland]

As a uk user of Seroquel, I've heard that people have to pay hundreds of dollars for a months medication. Is this really true or does healthcare pay the cost. If not I feel lucky we still have a National Health Service, at least for now. I've got quite a supply so I might take them on holiday to the US and have a yard sale!

[wi_fighter]

If we have health insurance, most meds are covered. Some insurance carriers have restrictions on what you can get under their plan. But a lot of us don't have any insurance, so it's out of pocket all the way unless we have a low enough income to get govermnent aid.

[Azalysa]

Yes, definitely depends on insurance plan or otherwise out of pocket.

According to my receipt, the retail price for my 75 mg/day is about $150. With my plan I pay $22. Anyone know why this med is so expensive?

[HelgaDE]

Azalysa this medication is soo expensive because it's not a generic medication.

[wi_fighter]

When I was complaining about paying $100 a month for Lexapro, my T told me that some people have to pay $400 for a single med each month. Ouch! For some reason, antipsychotics are really expensive.

I asked him "Yeah, but are they paying out of pocket for that $400 med?" Uh, no.


Another thing I don't get - dispensing fees. I went to a chain store pharmacy and paid $36 for 30 days of generic Celexa. Next refill, I went to the mom and pop pharmacy at our local grocery store and paid $33 for 90 DAYS of the exact same med. What the?!

[LMo]

Wow. Every time I wonder what the frick I'm paying all this money for insurance for, I read things like this and am glad I still have it. Lexapro, with my H's insurance, is only about $38/month for 20mg/day. When I was on it, I think it was $36/month for 10mg/day. $100 is outrageous.

In the UK, meds may be free but I understand that it is very difficult to get counseling. In fact, nothing is free - everything is paid for one way or another, usually by taxes and at the cost of something else.

[Azalysa]

Same here LMo - I'll be going on COBRA soon and I know it will be something like $300+ monthly, BUT, it's still less than paying out of pocket for my meds, never mind Dr. visits and such. That's another reason I stayed in my job so long - to have the meds, pdoc, T. covered.

[eskielover]

I feel very lucky that my Pdoc always has samples of the Seroquel that I use.......on the other side of my picture:

I get horrible migraines that don't let up. I am on a narcotic called fentynal (it is a patch). It has been costing me $900/month for that because I didn't qualify for any government help. With the new medicare program for buying medicine insurance I have found one that I qualified for. It will cost me 5% of the cost up to $2100-$5000 (have to pay full for that amount)......then it is back to 5% again to the end of the year.

It isn't great, but much better than having to pay full price.
Debbie

[crazymusiclvr]

I pay $30.00/wk for health insurance and my meds are $250.00/mo. The seroquel is $100.00/mo. becuase it is a specialty drug (maintinence drug). It makes me sick when I hear that someone is paying just a $30.00 copay. I have doctor bills on top of this but you know what......it's worth every penny to feel better.

[lenjan]

Some of us can't afford that $30 copay. A couple of my meds, when I had insurance, were a $40 copay. I often went without food, or let my car insurance lapse, or got so behind on my light bill that they threatened to shut me off, because I couldn't afford my $120 a month in med copays. Don't be so quick to judge.

Candy

[wi_fighter]

Yep, those $30 copays add up when you're on a long list of meds.

I'm thinking more and more that no healthcare plan is the be all, end all. Like LMo said, one thing might be "free" but you're paying for it in other ways.

[Larry_Hoover]

Nothing saddens me like this. I mean, how often I hear about the suffering that it causes. Not having guaranteed health care. Not having guaranteed and affordable access to medication. The most powerful country in the world, the wealthiest, has evolved a system that leaves its citizens on their own. Insured, or not insured. Pre-existing conditions. Exempted here. Percentage there. Too many rules. Not enough care.

As a Canadian, I need merely identify myself, to obtain care. Ya, there are wait lists. It's not perfect, either. With visits to medical specialists included, I bet I have 30 doctor appointments a year, just now. A good bit of that oversight is due to my pain condition, and the requirement that opiate prescriptions can never be refilled, but only rewritten, so I need to visit to get my prescriptions. Still, I pay not a penny for this care. My taxes are higher, but my government does more for me. I could not afford my own care right now, but my government cares for me, anyway.

Now, if my government deems me above a certain level of poverty, yes I would pay full medication costs, but those are still lower than in the US, and many employers insure for that as a routine benefit. In different markets, the same medication goes for very different prices. There might be only one pharmaceutical factory in the world turning out a particular medication, but the company making it puts different prices on it for different markets. And, for some reason, Americans generally pay the highest drug prices in the world. So, even if I do have to pay for my drugs, I pay less. But, if I'm in that real impoverished class, I pay $2 per prescription.

I don't generally have to worry about getting cared for. I just wish it was the same for everybody.

I read an economic analysis that declared that if administrative costs related to HMOs were simply dedicated to patient care, there's already enough money in the system to give care to all Americans. Unfortunately, that would also require the termination of those people whose employment is in that administrative realm, but......it seems to be a matter of politics, from my Canadian perspective. It saddens me that 40 or 50 million Americans don't have security of medical care. It saddens me immensely.

Sincerely,
Lar

[DaveyJones]

Ditto Larry...

In America we have the highest per patient cost while our outcomes are way down the list of "civilized" countries. Our higher costs go directly to the bottom lines of drug and insurance companies, among the most profitable businesses on earth. If you want to call me a socialist, that's just fine, but the way we deliver health care in the richest country in the history of human civilization is a scandal....period.

That said, if you look really hard you can find health resources out there...but it is NOT easy...you just have to be patient and persistent.

DJ

[HelgaDE]

Wow $400 for medication??! If people can afford to pay $400 then they can certainly can afford health insurance. I recommend that people do their research on the health insurance, humana. It's very good! With LOTS of dr listings on their coverage bootlet including coverage of hospital visits, both inpatient and outpatient.

[lenjan]

Helga, in addition to the mental health stuff I have a blood disorder. ONE of my meds for that costs over $3,500 a MONTH. The point we're trying to make here is that people CAN"T afford $400 for medication. If I were you, I wouldn't presume to judge other people's financial situations.

Candy

[VwlShrtg]

Yes, I'm definitely in agreement with Candy here. The fact is that many people simply can't afford $400 a month, whether it goes toward insurance or toward medication costs. And even if you can afford insurance, some plans bury a cutoff for yearly medication costs in the fine print - imagine my surprise when my prescription coverage ran out after only three months, and I was left with medication bills of $300/month. I was completely at a loss for what to do, and I'm definitely not the only one who's been in that situation.

[funnygirl]

I don't know where people get the idea that it's difficult to get counselling in the UK. Counselling is now big in the UK (and it's provided free at the point of service if you're referred by your GP). I know at least six people who are training to enter that profession and it's a long haul at about five years (almost as long as training to be a doctor). People can't get enough of it - they love it, it's the new universal panacea.

Personally I think it's a big con. All they do is listen, they're not allowed to give advice, and half the time they're off sick, according to friends who have been sent for a consultation. They're only human beings, not magicians.

FG

[jmo531]

Unfortunately, in the US if you have no healthcare your screwed. Especially, when you have to take medication on a daily basis. I am on Effexor at 150 mgs now and have been paying out of pocket for it for several months now. It is 116.00 per month. The Ativan is about 12.00 per month. However, when I was on a "weird" dose I was paying the 116.00 plue the 95.00 for the second dosage. I couldnt afford it so I had no choice but to lower my Effexor dosage.

It's a sad reality that so many of us deal with daily.

I remember my grandmother had to take a medication to thin her blood and was not covered my Medicare. It was nearly 400.00 per month just for her one medication. She lived on a fixed income.

It's all BS to me.

[LMo]

That's weird - I thought a UK-based member of PC told me that. I guess it was wrong. Thanks for setting us straight!

[Azalysa]

Not trying to pick on you HelgaDE, but the other issue, as if not being able to pay $400 isn't enough...if one has psych meds and doesn't get their insurance through a work group plan, it is impossible to buy personal insurance. (Now that ~may~ have changed, if so, please, someone let me know.)

Before I went to a pdoc for a dx, my T. thought I should be on Prozac so my GP prescribed it. That's all I was taking, one Prozac a day. I didn't have insurance and called several of the main companies - BC/BS, etc. and as soon as they heard I was taking Prozac, they wouldn't cover me. Then on the radio one day there was a woman who specialized in finding insurance for those "hard to cover" and with "pre-existing conditions." Thinking I had found my answer, I went to her and she flatly said that with any type of psych med, no insurance co. would privately insure me....no matter HOW much the cost.

Now with the HIPPA law...not sure if that translates over into being able to purchase insurance. Didn't think of that...hmmmm.