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Consumer Reports says buying prescription drugs from Canada can be a smart strategy for cost-conscious consumers. Here’s the magazine’s advice:
You can often save 25 percent or more [using mail-order pharmacies]. Buying brand-name medications from Canada can boost your mail-order savings, sometimes up to 50 percent. Generics, however, are cheaper in the U.S. And drugs bought in Canada will not count toward your Medicare Part D deductible.
While it’s illegal to buy drugs from foreign countries, including Canada, because of safety concerns, the FDA may refrain from taking legal action if you can provide your doctor’s name, address, and phone number, and confirm that the drugs are for personal use.
We’d clarify that while some generics are cheaper through U.S. online pharmacies (which is one reason we include U.S. pharmacies in the eDrugSearch.com system), others are not.
As eDrugSearch.com members know, the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA) and PharmacyChecker.com are both friends of eDrugSearch.com. All eDrugSearch.com member pharmacies are required to have PharmacyChecker.com approval, and most also have the CIPA seal. You can learn more about our pharmacy approval process here.
From the Raleigh News & Observer via the Consumer World blog, here are nine tips for becoming a smarter consumer:
1. Haggle.
2. Check for discounts.
3. Complain more.
4. Read the fine print.
5. Do your homework and get second opinions.
6. Get help.
7. Save for a rainy day.
8. Plan for retirement.
9. Maintain your car.
Go here for the full article.
To become a smarter consumer of prescription drugs, we encourage you to get help by doing your homework at eDrugSearch.com, and to read the fine print before buying a prescription medication from any online pharmacy that’s not in the eDrugSearch.com system.
Remember: being a smart drug consumer is important to both your wallet and your health.
Got this one in the inbox today. It just screams credibility, doesn’t it?
I’m sure we don’t need to remind our readers of this, but just in case a new visitor doesn’t already know this: NEVER RESPOND TO A SPAM SOLICATION OF ANY KIND OVER THE INTERNET — ESPECIALLY FROM AN ONLINE PHARMACY! You’re putting both your money and health at risk if you do.
A newspaper in Cleburne, Texas, outside Dallas, has published an excellent illustration of a point we’ve been making since we launched eDrugSearch.com: it’s well worth the effort to comparison shop for prescription drugs. An excerpt from the article:
Seven local pharmacies were contacted in an effort to discover what an uninsured consumer would pay for four random, common prescription medications. None of the 28 total prices reported by the pharmacies were equal in amount. One of the prescriptions varied in price by more than $39 depending on where it was filled.
The medications inquired about were a 250/50mcg Advair Diskus inhaler, used to treat asthma-related conditions; 0.5mg Alprazolam, the generic form of Xanax, used to reduce anxiety; 50mg Tramadol, the generic form of Ultram, a pain reliever; and 20mg Lexapro, an antidepressant.
The price of one 250/50mcg Advair Diskus inhaler, used to treat asthma-related conditions, at Keene Pharmacy is set at $201.10 while Kroger’s pharmacy sells the same inhaler for $240.79. At Wal-Mart Supercenter’s pharmacy, a 30-day supply of the pain reliever Tramadol is $4 but it sells for $28.50 at Cleburne Drug.
Some of the pharmacies can afford to sell generic forms of brand name medications at a fixed low price, such as Wal-Mart’s $4 prescription program. .. Kroger has a similar $4 program for generics. Although the cost of an Advair Diskus at Kroger was high compared with other pharmacy prices, Kroger sells Tramadol for $24.50, less than the identical dose and form sold at Cleburne Drug…
Walgreens and CVS, both well-known pharmacies across the U.S., were two of the more expensive pharmacies for the uninsured of the seven local pharmacies contacted. Both … offer saving cards for the uninsured. An uninsured consumer would pay more than $17 less for a 30 day supply of Lexapro, which has no generic form, and $29 less for the Advair Diskus, which also has no generic, with a Walgreens saving card…
If you click the links in the excerpt above, you’ll see a comparison of prices for these medications at eDrugSearch.com member pharmacies. You’ll find that:
The 250/50mcg Advair Diskus inhaler is available for less than $70 at several pharmacies;
50mg Tramadol is available for about half of Wal-Mart’s price, if bought in quantity;
20mg Lexapro is available for between $1.50 and $2 per tablet, also significantly less than Wal-Mart and other U.S. retailers;
The fourth drug, a controlled substance, is not sold through eDrugSearch.com member pharmacies.
In other words, if you can find the drug at eDrugSearch.com, you can probably buy it for a lot less than anywhere in Cleburne, Texas — or at any brick-and-mortar drugstore in the U.S., for that matter.
So please, comparison shop — but don’t forget to include licensed online pharmacies in your search.
It’s no secret that Americans pay far more for prescription drugs than consumers in any other country in the developed world. Most European countries impose price controls on Big Pharma that keep their prescription drug prices to less than two-thirds of what Americans pay.
Obviously, Big Pharma doesn’t want that happening here — which may help to explain why Pfizer has funded a new Rand Corporation study saying that lowering drug prices through price controls would have horrific consequences for Americans.
How horrific? It would actually reduce the length of your life!
As Reuters reports:
Imposing European-style price controls on prescription drugs in the United States would result in modest cost savings that would be more than offset by shortened life spans as the pace of drug innovation slows, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. They said lowering insurance co-payments would be a better way of attacking the problem of rising prescription drug prices in the United States, which pays more per capita for pharmaceuticals than any other nation.
“We found policies that regulate the prices of drugs could result in modest savings for consumers, in the best cases on the order of $5,000 to $10,000 per person over a lifetime,” said Darius Lakdawalla of the nonprofit Rand Corporation, who worked on two studies appearing in a special report on drug pricing in the journal Health Affairs.
“But in many other cases, those policies resulted in very substantial losses to consumers in the form of reduced life expectancy and those would be worth tens of thousands of dollars”…
They said introducing price regulations into a largely unregulated market like the United States would result in less investment in developing life-saving drugs, which in the long run would reduce the life expectancy of Americans.
I found it interesting that Pfizer’s funding of this little project was not mentioned until the 11th paragraph of the story.
I also found it interesting that there is no mention of the fact that in most European countries with prescription drug price controls, life spans are longer than in the United States.
Way to keep your eye on the ball, Reuters.
A final point to ponder: Rand says its study is objective. It just happens to put the burden of healthcare price reform on Big Insurance rather than Big Pharma, by saying the solution is to find a way to lower drug co-pays.
Do you think if the study had been funded by Humana or some other big insurance provider, Rand’s report might say something different?
Dr. Nancy Snyderman of the Today Show reported this morning on the growing number of Americans who use prescription drugs, and in many cases several prescription drugs, to treat chronic illnesses.
One of the issues the report raises is the importance of being aware of potential drug interactions; be sure to talk with your doctor and pharmacist, and to use online tools like DoubleCheckMD, to ensure that your drug regimen is safe.
A group of students at California Northstate College of Pharmacy put together this short video on the dangers of sharing prescription drugs like penicillin and Adderall. (Remember, they’re training to be pharmacists — not actors.)
