I am in absolute shock over the retail price of asthma medications! We currently don’t have insurance and I was going to try and get by without my Singular. Well, a few days into it and I woke up in the middle of the night with a tight chest feeling. I called the pharmacy and it was $127 for 30 pills!!! Over my dead body (literally). So I figured I’d try and limp along on an Albuteral inhaler. It’s now $50!!! And I read up that it doesn’t work as well as the old ones. How do they expect people with cronic conditions to survive???
Have you tried Walmart? They have hundreds of different prescriptions for $4, so you might just be able to find yours for a price you can afford.
Yes - Target and Walmart both offer $4 generic prescriptions. You should call them and find out if the generic version of your asthma medication is available through their program and then ask your doctor for a prescription that allows you to get generic as well.
That’s terrible! Here’s the drug list for Target and Walmart. I don’t see the generic drug for Singular (montelukast sodium), but they do have albuterol.
http://sites.target.com/site/en/health/generic_drugs.jsp?sort=alph
http://sites.target.com/site/en/health/generic_drugs.jsp
You know how at the end of the commercials they say, “If you can’t afford your prescription medicine please call for assistance.”?
Do so.
Here is one. http://www.togetherrxaccess.com/Tx/jsp/home.jsp
My husband has asthma and we don’t have insurance. To get by he gets an over the counter inhaler (like Primatine Mist or similar, it was around $15) for most asthma attacks. For the REALLY bad ones he uses his expired prescription inhaler.
Isn’t it wonderful that we live in a country where health care is a privilege and not a right?
I second and third what Mike said.
The Albuteral on the $4 list is the nebulizer treatments and the pills, not the inhaler. And there is no generic of Singulair and the only other alternative was only $10 less and you need to take it twice a day.
I’ve looked into the free prescription programs and I may have to pray I get into one, but I hope that we have insurance thru my husband’s job by the first of next month. Last time we didn’t have insurance these prices weren’t nearly as bad and I worked at Target so I could get my discount and coupons/rebates, and samples from my doctor. But just try getting any samples nowadays, it’s insane!
I know how it is. I didn’t have health insurance for years. I just got insurance last year and even now the insurance I have doesn’t include prescriptions. Thankfully I had a doctor for the kids that would let me make payments whenever they needed to see him for coughs, ear infections, physicals etc and, when he could he would order medicine directly into his office for me so I would only have to pay his cost. But there were definitely times when medicine was needed NOW and I couldn’t wait for it to be sent to his office. It was so hard to juggle the cost of prescriptions and things like oh . . . food, electricity, etc.
That’s how it worked for me.
I got on togetherrxaccess because of a $100 prescription and then before I could use togetherrxaccess I got insurance.
Also if you’re in the NRA they have a prescription discount program free with membership.
Hey, do you have AAA? They have a prescription discount card for people who don’t have coverage.
I use Singulair too (for my allergies) and had to stop taking it because our copay is ridiculous but I had to start taking it again so we’ve had to do without a few other things. There’s got to be another drug out there that will help you. Call your nurse and see if she can find one that’s generic for you.
Good luck.
Depending on how severe your asthma is you may be able to substitute a good allergy med for the singulair. I was able to come off Singulair years ago and now take Zyrtec 1-2x/day depending on how I feel. Zyrtec is now available over the counter and typically there are $4 off coupons to be found on line or in the newspaper. As I understand it Singulair blocks leukotrienes which are responsible for the histamine reaction that is an allergy attack. So for asthma it helps keep down the inflammation in your lungs - it is not an immediate relief/stop an asthma attack type drug like an inhaler.
Another thought for the Singulair is to ask you doctor if he has any samples he can give you. For years I couldn’t afford the copay on my Singulair and Zyrtec was not covered by ins so I lived off samples from the allergist and my PCP until Zyrtec went OTC.
I already take Zyrtec for my allergies. I was just doing so well on everything that I haven’t needed a rescue inhaler for months! And our doctors office went to a “no samples” policy. I think it had to do with the drug reps and crap, but it kinda bites in a way too.
I’m just going to have to buck it up and pay it. I’m going to check out the Walmart here for their price and see if they’ll take the 10% coupon I found online. I looked it up and Singulair is not due to go generic until 2012. But Walmart did introduce their own version of the eco-friendly albuterol inhaler that isn’t as bad cost wise.
We recently changed insurance, and now our CO-PAY IS $60 for a month of Singulair. I stopped taking it. My doctor also told me that because they changed the inhalers so that they are no longer aerosol, there are no generics on the inhalers right now, so an inhaler for my daughter is a $60 co-pay as well. It’s ridiculous. My doctor, did, however give me a coupon for 2 free months of an inhaler. Perhaps your doctor could offer you the same. If you’re interested, I can look it up and tell you which inhaler/company it is. I can’t remember right off the bat.
I found the coupon. It’s actually only 1 free month and then $15 off the next 2 prescriptions. It’s for Proventil HFA from Schering-Plough, and here’s a link to the offer: http://www.rxvouchers.com/offer.html?id=225
I have insurance (Anthem Blue Cross) and I still have to pay $185 for Advair, which has no generic. I think the retail price is over $300. How can the average person pay that much? It’s ridiculous. I’ve been declined by other insurance companies with better rates for non-generic medication, so I’m stuck with Anthem, which I do NOT recommend to anyone if they can help it.
I have Blue Shield and with all this talk I looked it up. It says it would cost me $15. I really hate that these companies are making so much money and they can’t charge a reasonable price for so many people. :grrr:
I would just like to find someone high up in these drug companies and wrap a plasitc bag around their head and poke a little tiny pin hole in it and ask them how they like it! :gah:
I had my prescrption transfer to the Walmart over here, the $9 inhaler has only 60 metered puffs, not 200. But hey, it’s only $9. I’m so glad I was able to fill my Advair for 90 days right before we lost our insurance. I’d die, literally!
Can I hit them on the head with a sledgehammer and poke them in the eyes with needles for the cost of migraine meds too?
I know that it is often percieved that Canadians have it better when it comes to getting drugs. I just wanted to say that this isn’t always true.
I’m a migraine suffer, who has finally found relief after 3 years of weekly visits to a Naturo-path.
Prior to that… a single pill of the medication that worked for me was $30 at the cheapest place I could find.
At the time I was in university and that was the equivalent of 4 hours at my ‘student’ job. I was just ever so grateful that they would dispense them one at a time.
Oh, and I only took them at exam time when I had to be alert and couldn’t suffer through. Sometimes taking 4 tylenol #3’s would work but I couldn’t often get them because the doctor was afraid of misuse.
Tell your Dr. Before my son had some bad side effects with Singulair (which is such a great drug, we miss it!) he always gave us free samples. We never paid for it, ever.
Mike is right too, I got free meds from the drug company when we didn’t have insurance and my meds were more than I could afford. Call them, they want you to be well. You will most probably either get assistance from your Dr or the drug company.