Prescription Costs – Up, Up, And AWAY!!


I started this post back in October when my husband got his prescription refilled. Let me tell you – it’s so much fun to be in your late 30s and take hydroxychloroquine for arthritis. 🙁

 

I found it quite disturbing that his prescription had more than DOUBLED in cost!

 

September 2014: 7.56

 

October 2014: 15.62

 

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How is anyone on a fixed budget expected to account for monthly costs when the medicine they take can DOUBLE on a whim? That was all I could think about when he picked up his prescription. $8 may not seem like a lot to most people, but it could be devastating to someone on a very narrow fixed budget. When you look at it in terms of DOUBLING, that’s just ridiculous!!

 

Fast forward to February and my husband needed to see his primary for the excruciating pain he was in. She prescribed him indomethacin to use on very bad days. His hydroxychloroquine was ready for pick up, so he got them both on that trip. He was absolutely HORRIFIED by the price!! He assumed the high cost was for the indomethacin and he said something to his rhuematologist about the price. She said that didn’t sound right for such a cheap drug. This caused us to take a closer look at things.

 

prescription cost 020515

 

We were researching alternatives this morning and learned that the indomethacin is on Walmart’s $4 prescription list for a one month supply. I think he will get the next batch filled there instead. Much cheaper for twice as many pills than this prescription filled.

 

Something still didn’t seem right to me though. It wasn’t so much that the 50.99 seemed too high for indomethacin, but that 6.67 seemed a bit too low for hydroxychloroquine. I decided to compare the prescription numbers to the bottle and guess what?

 

Yeah, 50.99 wasn’t for the indomethacin. 🙁

 

ARE YOU FRIGGIN KIDDING ME?!?!?! Why in the world has the cost of the hydroxychloroquine gone up almost SEVEN TIMES in price over the past five months?!?! BEYOND ridiculous!

 

I am very thankful we’ve built up a sizeable HSA to account for any medical expenses that may come up.

 

Still… what are folks on a fixed income supposed to do about something like this? 🙁