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Looking for ideas on prescription drugs

Nowhere Man

My wife has Parkinson's disease. She takes 3 separate medications to control the symptoms. Two of the meds are affordable, the 3rd is not. At $600/month for the one drug we will be in the Medicare "donut hole" shortly. Her meds this year will run us about $6000.

In previous years, she was eligible for assistance from the manufacturer of the expensive drug. In January, the manufacturer release a generic version and discontinued assistance. Guess what? The generic version costs just as much. assholes.

I'm looking for ideas on how we can cut the costs? We have income and savings to draw on but $6000 in yearly bleeding will quickly diminish the savings accounts.

I'm looking for ideas. Any of you buy from Canadian pharmacies?


Dave
 
My doctor referred me to Canadadrugs.com They were way cheaper on the drugs we needed and super easy to order from. Everything shipped right to your door and all the doctor needed to do was fax them the prescription. If you want I believe you can go to their site and see if the drugs you need are available and what they would cost.

John
 
Talk to your Doctor. Write you Congressman. Check other pharmacies. This is what is wrong with our health care system.

I take several very expensive drugs $5.00/day and $3.00/day after going through my insurance drug program. I have a drug savings card from the drug company it reduces them to $.25/day and 0 for the second one. Card does not work if you are on Medicare....I sure don't understand why! These different prices and savings cards are BS!

Government run health care will make it worse. Medicare is government run health care!!!!!!

Good luck to your wife and I sure hope the drugs are working for her. Parkinson's is a terrible disease.

Bill
 
I can't help other than to say how sorry I am. I watched my father decline from a combination of age and Parkinson's for 15 years. He was prescribed Azilect when it was first released. The co pay at that time was about $2200 a month just for the Azilect. But it completely brought him around.
Wishing you and your family the best!
 
So sorry for your situation. I hope some of the suggestions mentioned work for you. There were ads on TV recently about WalMart never charging more than $10 for a filled prescription. Not sure if your meds would fit in this category, but worth a try. Canada and Mexico have less expensive meds than the US, and more often then not, the meds were made in the US to begin with. I wish your wife the very best. Let us know if you have to set up a "Fund Me" account. We can always pitch in to help a fellow shooter stay on the range.
 
What my brother did was contact the drug producer and told them he had to have his meds but couldn't afford them so they have given a waiver and free meds for the last 10 years or so . I would go that route immediately to get help. Most drug companys even advertise on tv and in magazines to contact them and if you qualify income wise you get her much needed medicine fairly quick and have to re register once a year. Try it.
 
Go to goodrx web site. Highest rated drug (by users) is Sinemet. Less than $30.00 per month at Wal-mart Hope I've got this right and it helps you and yours ;)
 
My folks knocked their pharmacy costs way down my changing their Medicare supplemental insurance from MODA to Atriol. The most expensive prescription is now provided by the new insurance for about 20% of what the previous cost was. jd
 
Do your homework though. Make sure the Canadian store is selling Canadian made products and not some cheap Thai or China copies which may contain less than 10% of the actual medications. I worked in US Customs and we would intercept and then have tested a lot of these type shipments, and a lot, not all, were very disappointing. Please do your homework.
 
Thank you for all the input. We spent the day on the phone with her doctor's office manager who is looking in to a few possibilities. We also have an appointment with an insurance salesman to see if a change in her medicare supplemental coverage would help.

Dave
 
1. Is a Deep Brain Stimulator an option. I believe Medicare covers the procedure and then you can ditch the drugs

2. The drug that just went generic will come down in price in 6 months. When a drug looses it's patent, the 1st generic manufacturer has exclusive rights to produce it for 6 months. They typically don't lower the cost as you found out. After 6 months other manufacturers can produce it and it turns into a price war.

3. You stated you are in the donut hole. Your cost of a generic drug in the donut hole is 51%. Once your out of pocket reaches $4950 you leave the donut hole and drug coverage is then 95%

4 the suggestion to contact the Parkinson's disease foundation is a good one. They may be able to point you to resources to help. Not sure but with some diseases, this is the case.

I wish you are your wife the best. Hang in there.
 
There will be criteria that must be met related to the patients medical condition
in order to be a candidate for DBS. A vet friend of mine had it done & it did help
him. Took away most of the severe symptoms. He is glad he had it done though.
 
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