When we lost our health insurance at the end of last April, one of the things I was concerned about was the cost of prescription medicine. Imitrex is like a miracle drug for me, and I really can’t go without it when I get a migraine. Anyone who is familiar with this drug knows how expensive it is.
I managed to stockpile several months worth of pills while we still had insurance, and it was just this week that my supply was almost gone. It was time to find out what the retail numbers were going to be. I braced myself for the showdown at the pharmacy.
I’ve been getting my prescription filled at our local Rite Aid, but I decided it might be wise to do some price checking. Yesterday I consulted with the pharmacist at Costco about the cost of a package of 9 pills of Imitrex.
“That will be $168,” he said, “but would you like me to check the price on the generic version? It’s probably much cheaper.” I told him to go ahead and check, but I wasn’t hopeful, because when the generic version of Imitrex first became available, I didn’t get any price break. My insurance deductible remained the same, which was $50 for 4 pills. For a really bad migraine, I could easily use 2 pills. I continued to get the brand version because there was no incentive to change to the generic.
“The cost for a package of 9 generic pills will be $17,” the pharmacist said.
“Are you sure that’s right?” I replied. I had to force myself to control my reaction, as I was getting quite excited and my voice was becoming louder. This sounded way too good to be true. “That’s the price I’m coming up with.” he reassured me.
So of course I got my prescription transferred to Costco. This morning I went to pick it up and I got another nice surprise at the checkout. Because I don’t have insurance, I’m eligible for an additional discount. Final price for my prescription was $14.38.
It’s definitely worth doing price comparisons for prescription drugs. I found a silver lining to our loss of insurance. But as far as understanding the ins and outs of pricing prescription medicine, well that’s a headache.
