Price of Keppra in the USA

[vanessa1148]

Greetings all.

My husband is American and has finally succeeded in convincing me to move back to the USA with him. We will be arriving late July.

I am very worried about health care in the USA. Because I have epilepsy, I've been reading random bits of information that indicates I will be rejected for health insurance because of it.

Also, some people are paying Several thousand dollars a month for Keppra!! Is this the truth?? I only pay $35 a month for Keppra here in Australia. I'm on 250 mg twice daily.

This is also very worrying that I might not be able to afford my meds. I've tried to talk to my husband about this but he just kinda fobs it off. Please let me know how much you pay for your meds?

With thanks and regards, Vanessa.

 

[momof3boys]

Im on my husband's health insurance, and we pay $150 for a six month supply, that we can only order from a mail in pharmacy, which is $25 a month for, Or we can get it through a local pharmacy here in town, but pay $40 a month for a month's supply. So its cheaper to go through the mail in order pharmacy.

 

[Nakamova]

My generic Lamotrigine is $15.00/month. Brand name would be $30.00 to $50.00 per month, and without insurance it would cost me $1000 per month. Your health insurance plan can make a big difference.

 

[travel bug]

Hi Venessa,

I have to pay for my drugs up front, and once I reach my deductible, my insurance reimburses me for 70% of the cost. Until I changed to generic last month, I paid $385 per month for Keppra, 500mg.

 

[vanessa1148]

Okay, thanks to you all. I just wonder why i see so many people who can't afford their medications. Perhaps I don't understand how the health system works.

 

[CQ:)]

Okay, thanks to you all. I just wonder why i see so many people who can't afford their medications. Perhaps I don't understand how the health system works.

I'm also an Aussie but a very good friend in America has told me a little about their health system & I've learnt a little from the American people on here.
From what I can understand is that in America it is better if you have health insurance & If you don't have a health insurance it can cost a fortune for your medical bills/medications.
I think that if you are employed & have a decent job the insurance is covered through your employer & if you have a family they are covered under your insurance. Also a lot of people who have low incomes can't afford to have insurance so do have trouble paying for their medical bills or medication.

I'm sure any of the American folks on here will be able to correct me if I am wrong lol .

I found the below link on Wikipedia which may be able to tell you more about the American Health system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States

 

[vanessa1148]

G'day CQ thanks for that. Yeah I have read the obamacare thing, and it seems that I can be put into the high risk pool and get some sort of coverage. Had Obamacare not been implemented, I probably would have been refused insurance point blank because of my epilepsy. Although I may receive cover via an employer.

From what I can see, all they care about is whether you are going to cost them money or not, your health and wellbeing is way down on their priority list. It's not like home - if you get sick you get treated - no questions asked.

I will sorely miss the endless summer that is Darwin, but I guess you gotta compromise

 

[efowler25]

We are new to epilepsy, however we are not new to insurance and the cost of Meds. Our daughter has bad asthma and we have been forking out large amounts of money for that. With that being said......we are in an HSA plan through my husband's insurance. We have to pay everything out of pocket until we hit an individual deductible of $2500 or $5000 for the family. My son has just been diagnosed and started Keppra a week ago today. He takes 500mg twice a day. We get the generic version and it is $16 for a months supply. I was spazzing a bit thinking the cost of the meds would be much much more and much to my surprise it was very reasonable!!

We have been issued Diastat which is another story. It was with a coupon $300, but that is just the emergency meds we hope to never have to use!!

Good Luck on your move to the states!!

 

[Nakamova]

Yeah I have read the obamacare thing, and it seems that I can be put into the high risk pool and get some sort of coverage. Had Obamacare not been implemented, I probably would have been refused insurance point blank because of my epilepsy. Although I may receive cover via an employer.

Much of the stuff in the Affordable Health Care Act actually hasn't been implemented yet (it's a gradual process that you can follow here: http://www.healthcare.gov/law/timeline/), and it's being challenged in the courts right now. It does provide for high-risk pools and prevent denial of coverage for a pre-existing condition. Here in Massachusetts, where we've had mandatory health care for a while, that's never been an issue for me. As for prescription drug costs, there have been benefits/controls enacted for Medicare (for Seniors), but the drug companies have stymied most efforts to bring down costs (for example, they prevented the act from allowing volume discounts.)

 

[tinathesingergirl]

hopefully you will not have to use that diastat! Obamacare has for the most part has NOT been implemented and has been a huge waste of tax payer money in my opinion I would be very glad if it had been implemented i went for a about a year without insurance when i was first diagnosed with epilepsy but becasue I was working and my husband was working and we had no kids and the timing was outside of my open enrollment period for insurance at work i was unable to get insurance for about 8 months and i had broke my leg about 1 year before on a workers comp claim so i could not get a private plan. So I could not get gov't assistance - I was married and my husband and I made too much money and had no children which made no sense since we made about 40k between the 2 of us. Crazy..... Thankfully now I have very very good insurance via my employer no problems at all!