Rx drug prices

I normally would not pass on email this way, but thought this would be of interest to folks here.
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It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can
afford to put a CVS and Walgreens on every corner.

Prescription Info

Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone I
knew should know about this. Please read the following and pass it on. On
Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for channel 7 News in
Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found
in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as
much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo..... three
thousand percent!

So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and
usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the
pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a prescription drug,
and bought th e name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills. The pharmacist
might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would
only cost $80, making you think you are "saving" $20. What the pharmacist
is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him
$10!

At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or
not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he
said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs.

I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients. I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. I checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. ! I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08.

I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in.

I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and pasting it into your own email, and send it to everyone you know with an E-mail address.

Wherever you go, there you are