If you don’t have health insurance or if your health insurance doesn’t provide discounts for a lot of prescription medicines, you may still be able to save money. These options are not available to everyone but you owe it to yourself to check to see if they are available in your area and if you are eligible.
Ask Your Doctor for Samples
Pharmaceutical companies are notorious for pressuring doctors to prescribe their latest drugs. These are the high-profit products that are still proprietary to the manufacturers and there are no generic forms available on the market. But to promote these medicines the companies often send “detail men” around to visit doctors’ offices, dropping off samples of the medications. Your doctor may feel that one of these new medicines is worth trying for your situation, so ask for samples.
Always be sure to ask your doctor about what to watch out for in terms of known side effects when taking any new medication.
Ask Your Doctor for Alternate Medicinal Therapies
Although your doctor may believe you should be using a powerful new medication, it is a good idea to ask about older medicines that may have generic forms on the market. Ask your doctor to explain the side effects and expected results for both the new medications and the older medications. For chronic illnesses like diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure (to name just a few) you may have to try several different medications to determine which therapy works best for you and which therapies your body can tolerate.
Although newer medicines may be more powerful than older medicines, you may be able to combine a medicinal therapy with changes in diet and activity to control a chronic medical condition. This may save you considerable money.
Ask If a Drug Manufacturer Offers Financial Assistance
Although most people may not qualify for such assistance, especially if they already have insurance, many pharmaceutical companies offer financial assistance for some patients who need very specific drug therapies but cannot afford them. Your doctor or pharmacist should be able to tell you if such programs are available, how you qualify for them, and whether you have a chance to take advantage of these special offers.
Ask if Your Pharmacy has a Discount Program
Some pharmacies do provide discount pricing that is almost as-good-as and sometimes better than insurance co-pays for prescriptions. Ask the pharmacist what payment options will save you the most money. Their discount plans can also help with medicines your insurance doesn’t pay for.
Try Generic Medicines Before You Give Up on Them
Some people believe they don’t derive as much benefit from generic medicines as from brand name medicines. Assuming there is some truth to this widespread belief, you should always try a generic medication first before relying solely on the original brand medicine. That is because your body responds differently to each medication and past dissatisfaction with generic medicines may not always be the case.
Generic medicines are much less expensive than brand-name medicines, and your insurance or health-care organization may require that you try generic medicine first anyway.
Ask if the Pharmacy has a Free Prescription Program
This may come as a shock to you, but some pharmacies will simply give you free prescriptions under certain circumstances. Usually these are antibiotics, especially older, generic-available antibiotics used to treat minor, common infections. Your doctor may be able to suggest some local pharmacies that offer free prescriptions.
Don’t get your hopes up that a local pharmacy will start to underwrite your medical costs. These free prescription programs are very limited in scope and may still be experimental. If a pharmacy offers free prescriptions they are hoping you’ll buy other medical supplies or medicines there on a regular basis.
Bottom Line: Do Not Assume You Cannot Save Money
Before you decide NOT to visit the doctor, or just accept the most expensive medicine available, ask questions of both your doctor and pharmacist. See what other options they can recommend for you. If you really need to keep your costs down when buying medicines, you may be surprised at just how many options might be available.
Your community may even have a health care service that can help you with non-essential prescriptions such as for birth-control. You may qualify for all sorts of special programs you never heard of. You’ll just have to do some research to see if they are available in your area and who is eligible to benefit from them.