(no subject)
This was sent to me by a friend, and I thought I would share it. For those of you who fill MANY prescriptions like I do, I thought it would be of interest. I guess this is really espically helpfull if you don't have health insurance.
Generic Drug Price Gouging
On Monday night (July 22), Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo....three thousand percent! Mr. Wilson did a thorough research, and checked out all the major drugstore chains, discount chains, independent pharmacies, and even checked on some Canadian pharmacies.
So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves. For Example, if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100.00 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, the would only cost $80.00, making you thing you are "saving" $20.00. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10.00!
At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs. They gave the link to Costco, which I will include here, so that you can go and check prices for yourself www.costco.com Costco Online pharmacy.
I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get it's online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients. I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. I check the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08.
I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store, you do not have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door you just want to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in.
I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and pasting it into you own email, and send it to everyone you know with an e mail address. And if anyone has other ideas of how to address this problem, please contact Patty Clegg at cleg@bignet.net.
This practice is almost sinful, and just maybe, working together, we can make a difference. Thank you.
Generic Drug Price Gouging
On Monday night (July 22), Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo....three thousand percent! Mr. Wilson did a thorough research, and checked out all the major drugstore chains, discount chains, independent pharmacies, and even checked on some Canadian pharmacies.
So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves. For Example, if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100.00 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, the would only cost $80.00, making you thing you are "saving" $20.00. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10.00!
At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs. They gave the link to Costco, which I will include here, so that you can go and check prices for yourself www.costco.com Costco Online pharmacy.
I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get it's online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients. I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. I check the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08.
I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store, you do not have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door you just want to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in.
I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and pasting it into you own email, and send it to everyone you know with an e mail address. And if anyone has other ideas of how to address this problem, please contact Patty Clegg at cleg@bignet.net.
This practice is almost sinful, and just maybe, working together, we can make a difference. Thank you.