Personal financial cost of your medication?

[pita300]

Those of you paying out of pocket for your meds, if you haven't already call around to other pharmacies. Find out what they charge, you might need to go to a different place or see if your place will price match. It seems like CVS, Walgreens, those kind of chains charge more, and sometimes A LOT MORE.

I get my meds from Walgreens. I paid 20.00 for a discount card. Without this discount the generic Keppra would be 660.00 a month Lamictal would be over 500.00. The Tegretol is name brand and this is the lowest I have found it in my area. Before the generic verison of Tegretol XR came out it was over 300.00. The money I' ve saved with the Walgreens discount card has more than paid for the 20.00 cost of the card. Untill last month I was getting my meds at CVS. They did not offer any kind of discount for people with no insurance or horrible coverage like mine

 

[CathyAnn31]

Lamictal XR 200 mg. $50 for 3 months. My hubby works for a major hospital and uses the pharmacy there for my sz meds.

 

[CathyAnn31]

I've heard that places like Sam's and Costo have great prices on meds and that you don't need a membership just for their pharmacy. <---- Don't quote me on that one, lol.

While the US healthcare system isn't ideal, the UK one isn't much better. I've heard horror stories from a few friends I know who live there and have decided to go with private providers. You're not going to find a perfect system anywhere.

 

[jemsister]

After insurance pays their portion, we pay $50 a month for Lamotrigine, $50 a month for Trileptal, and if I go through a local pharmacy, $125 a month for Vimpat. Plus about $15 combined for the omeprazole and sodium supplements.

If we get everything worked out with this mail service pharmacy, Vimpat will only cost us $15. Been fighting like crazy to get it to work. Not totally sure if it's going to work out in the end. I ordered my Vimpat on February 7, and they sent it to the wrong address. Since then, it's been like pulling teeth trying to get them to "overnight" me my pills, through one screw up or another. I was promised an overnighted prescription last Monday. Yeah. =/ But we have to get it through them, there is no way we could afford the $125.

 

[CQ:)]

In Australia we have the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS) my medication is on the PBS which means it's significantly cheaper than what I would be paying if it wasn't. I don't qualify for any other benefits since I earn too much and am not on disability..

Both my seizure meds are covered by the PBS & I get unemployment benefits so I have a health care card which helps more with the meds.

With the PBS & health care card both my Keppra & Tegretol only cost me approx $5.90.
I have to get my Keppra filled every month.
The Tegretol has alot more sheets in the box so when I was on 400mgs a box of Tegretol lasted me almost 3 months.
Last year I had my Tegretol lowered from 400mg - 200mg (twice day), to save getting a new script I have been splitting my 400mg tabs in half which means I only have to get the Tegretol filled every 6 months.

 

[CQ:)]

CrunchyFrog - i'm in Australia too and I always get a percentage of what I pay for my neurologist back. Last time I paid $310 for my EEG and a consultion (combined price) and I received about $160 back from medicare. I know it's not everything but better than nothing. Have you checked with Medicare that you can't get back because I think you should be able to????

Really? What state are you in? I was told I couldn't get anything back? I didn't have to pay for my EEG because it was through emergency. But, the MRI and neurologist appointments I was told I can't get anything back.

Crunchy,
I wonder if it depends on your neurologist as to whether you can claim some of the cost of your appt back on Medicare.
I live near the NSW/Vic border (I'm on the NSW side), my own neurologist is in my hometown but the hospital where I had my surgery & where the epilepsy clinic I go to is at the Austin Health in Heidleberg (Melbourne).

When I 1st started going to my local neurologist in 2002 it was the same cost for all patients (you don't get anything of if you are on benefits) but I was able to just pay the gap & they would bill the rest to Medicare. They eventually stopped allowing patients to pay the gap so now when I do go to my neurologist here I have to pay the full price then I can go to Medicare to get some back (I can't remember how much I got back bu think it is probably about 40%). I haven't seen my own neurologist here for almost 2 years because I've been going to the epilepsy clinic for my checkups.
Any EEGs I had done in my home town were done at my neurologists clinic so the cost of the EEG was added onto my visit.
I've had 2 MRIs done in my home town but they were done a while ago - 11 years ago & about 7 years ago, I can't remember how much the MRIs cost me back then but I am pretty sure I was able to get a small amount of because I was on benefits.

I was so lucky because everything to do with my surgery - all the tests I had, the surgery itself & the epilepsy clinic are all covered by medicare. The only cost I've had during the time I've been going to the Austin Health for my surgery (both before & after) was the cost of getting to Melbourne, buying any food & paying for somewhere to stay while I recovered after my surgery.

I am due to go back to see my own neurologist sometime this year, last time I saw him it was about $150 so not sure how much it will cost when I go back this year.

 

[KarenB]

You can get brand name medications outside the U.S. for about 1/2 the price. currently live in Thailand, which has socialized medicine, and the care is quite good. It's easy to get in to see a doctor, and most of the docs are educated abroad, although the medical university here is good.

Our son can see our Neurologist at the international hospital for about $70 the first visit, and $30 for follow-ups. Or, we can go over to the government hospital and see the same doctor for free (we just pay hospital fee of less than $2). Both hospitals are good, but the government hospital is a bit crowded, and you have to wait longer to get a procedure like an MRI done (about 2 months).

This last week, Jon had appointments with both his neurologist and Pediatrician/Nutritionist. He had blood work done, and also got 2 months of meds (Zonegran, Potassium, and MCT oil). That all came up to about $400.

We have International Insurance. We pay a $250 deductible, and then the company picks up 100% of all health care overseas.

When we were in America, it cost about $400 to see the Neurologist, and $1000 for a visit to the Epileptologist. The meds ran about $600 a month but were covered by insurance. His medical bills totaled around $100,000 in 2010 and 2011 because he was hospitalized several times. I think we only had to pay $5000 of that, and our insurance picked up the rest.

 

[C0urt]

i pay what i think is 20 percent a month for two meds, but still 30 dollars for each.

 

[JustAnotherName]

I have an individual insurance plan that costs me about $115 a month. That said, my generic Keppra costs $10, and my pre-natal vitamens cost $4.

My insurance is basically just "catastrophy" insurance. It will cover a portion of hospital visits, etc, but if I were to be prescribed a non-generic medication, it would run me about $300 (for Keppra). When I was taking Carbatrol, it cost me $135 a month. As a college kid back then, it hurt the pocket book.

Ya do what you've got to do. Even though I detest having to pay for insurance and medical bills (if they happen), I know that if I didn't have it, I'd be much worse off for it....

 

[Toxic-virus]

Bloody hell, that's some serious wedge you guys shell out.
It's not right, I'm staying put in the uk.

 

[RunningGirl85]

I just saw the cost for my Lamictal XR the other day... holy smokes it was a lot of money. I can't remember the exact cost, but I think I saw something like 750 dollars for thirty days of 400 mg. And that's only ONE medication that I take.

One very good thing about my situation is that I developed epilepsy while in the military, so the military basically "owns" it. Obviously care is free while I'm in the service (thank goodness), and I will also get care when I get out; though, I'm not sure if I get full medical coverage unless I get medically boarded out of the military - still trying to figure that out as part of my decision to stay or leave. I do know one thing either way, I'll never be able to afford being uninsured.

 

[Azusa]

I take lemictal and it only cost 20 bucks because the insurance pays the rest.
However my insurance is extremely expensive. Almost 500 dollars, it was at like 400 and they raised it like 75 bucks or something a few months ago. And I am only 20, my mothers insurance isn't even 400.