Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Oh, by the Way...

Today I went to the pharmacy to renew a prescription, and while I was there, I inquired about the price of those pills for which, in Greece, without insurance, I paid $2.34 for a month's supply. Here, without insurance, a month's worth of the brand as opposed to the generic version costs $27.99. That's almost 12 times more! (Okay, it's 11.96 times more.)

I don't think my health insurance company pays a cent. Simply the manufacturer "accepts" my $15 co-pay, which, figuring in the pharmacist's profit, is still six or seven times what the manufacturer could profitably sell it for. The drug company accepts 7 times what the pills are worth instead of 12 times. And the health insurance company keeps on charging me for this kind of coverage.

Call it "protection" instead of "coverage" and it begins to smack of racketeering, doesn't it? Pay up or else.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

The first law of marketing is that the cost of making a product has not relationship to its selling price.

Since it is about a half hour drive from my home, I go to Mexico periodically to pick up some medicines. One of these, which costs about $300 for a month's supply at my local druggist (no insurance)costs about $75 in Mexico.

Buenos Dias
George A. Marquart