| Anthony Bonde needs about 25 pills a day to combat the diabetes, Parkinson's disease and crippling back pain that prevent him from working.
He said the prescriptions, totaling $1,000 monthly, would force him to choose between food and medicine if not for the insurance through his wife's work, which drops the tab to $200.
I just cringe, if we'd ever lose that insurance, or for the people that don't have insurance. I don't know how they can pay for it," said Bonde, 46, of Kiel. "It's a way higher price than what it should be."
Americans spend about $200 billion annually on prescription drugs, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that conducts health-care analysis. The $188 billion spent on prescriptions in 2004 was nearly five times the $40 billion spent in 1990, the foundation said.
But on Friday, Bonde spent only $11, walking out of Walgreen Drug Store on 14th Street with $129 in medications.
Others aren't so fortunate, said Pat Hafermann, Sheboygan County's elderly benefits specialist.
"Some (seniors) have given up their medications in order to eat, a lot of them have taken their pills and split them or, honest to God, they don't get the med . because they just can't afford it," she said. "A lot of them end up in the emergency rooms."
Consumers have to spend time shopping to combat rising drug costs, doing the legwork to find the right insurance and the right medication at the right pharmacy.
Bob Bouche, pharmacist at Glander Prescription Plus in Sheboygan, said the first thing consumers need to do is simply ask questions.
"Some of these things are fairly expensive, but there's alternatives to them," he said. "Lipitor, for example - I take that myself, but . I'll split the tablets and I'll do an every-other-day dosing because we know it's long-acting. Things like that are actually going to give a tremendous cost savings."
Bouche also advised buying small quantities the first time around to make sure a drug is effective before investing in a large prescription, and consulting a pharmacist about the availability of generic equivalents.
Some of the most dramatic cost savings can come from buying generic drugs, particularly since pharmacies at several big-box stores now offer common prescriptions for $4 to $6.
For example, the generic equivalent to Glucophage, a common diabetes medication, is available for $4 at both Target and Wal-Mart pharmacies, while six other Sheboygan-area pharmacies surveyed sold the drug for $13 to $32.
Other drug options are available on a state-run Web site, www.drugsavings.wi.gov , through which Wisconsin residents can purchase drugs from three Canadian pharmacies the state has approved or through I-Save, a multi-state cooperative that sells drugs from Canada and several European countries.
Both have a limited selection of medications often available only in larger quantities, but the savings can be substantial, even over generic drugs.
Consumers must note, however, that Wisconsin does not license the pharmacies or assume liability for the medication. According to the Web site, "applicable federal law currently prohibits such importation," but the state does not enforce the guidelines.
"Sometimes you've got to look at all the avenues that are out that are available. . You've even got to look at getting drugs from Canada," said Hafermann, the benefits specialist. "Just make yourself aware."
For low-income families or individuals, help is available through The Salvation Army, which in 2005 wrote out and paid for 1,174 prescriptions through the Red Shield Free Clinic, according to agency administrators.
For seniors, Hafermann said, two of the best options are Medicare - which has 54 drug plans to choose from in the county, according to the Medicare Web site - and SeniorCare, a state program that costs $30 a year plus $5 per prescription for generic drugs and $15 for name brands, with a co-pay that varies based on income.
Jerome Heisdorf, 75, of Elkhart Lake, did his research online and now buys discounted bulk medication through a mail-order company as part of a Medicare program.
"We started using mail-order plan about a year ago, and that helps us quite a bit," said Heisdorf, adding that buying a three-month supply lets him reduce the number of co-pays.
Heisdorf said his Medicare Part D plan is hit-and-miss, as much of the $300 he pays monthly is for drugs his plan doesn't cover. Examples like that show why it is important to choose plans carefully, he said.
"What you're taking today is not necessarily what you're going to be taking three months from now," Bouche said. "Especially in that age bracket, plus-65, health conditions change fairly quickly, and all the sudden what you thought is a good plan is very narrow and restrictive."
The bottom line, pharmacist Bouche said, is consumers need to ask questions, regardless of what they may hear from friends or on television.
"(Customers say), 'I saw that on TV, I've been talking to my doctor, I'm going to go get that,'" he said. "Often for many disease states, there's other alternatives that are equally effective, so be cautious." |
