Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A tight-wad I am

But do you put a price on medicine for a child? I went to the pharmacy to pick up the one medicine they called in for Trevor. It was a tiny bottle of 30 chewable Singulair. That'll be $126 please. Gasp slightly under my breath, swallow hard, and ask meekly, "$126???" Yep. That's what they are. So I'm basically spending 99% of the cost on research and development and also for some good television advertising and glossy print ads in periodicals. For dumb. I wish there were a generic. I know I'm glad that Trevor is on the mend. But THAT much for some silly pills? Thankfully, I do have a bag of free samples for the other stuff he's needing to be on this week.

6 comments:

  1. OH OUCH!! That's not being a tight-wad! That's over $4 a pill!

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  2. Yep ... I have to take those in the PM too but albeit not the chewable variety. That plus one of those clarinex or allegra (can't remember) in the AM. You might notice that he will be more tired ... at least yawning more since that's one of the side effects of most allergy & asthma medications.

    My Dr. tried switching me to some of the generics but they didn't work even half as good. Since I like breathing (better than eating) I'll stick with what works. Even with drug plan insurance the cost/copay on name brand (non-generics) is high --- fortunately the plan lets me buy 3 months supply for the cost of just one months co-pay/co-insurance.

    Don't know if this is still considered to be true or not but they used to say that most kids with childhood allergies "grow out of them" but those who develop allergies in their adult years end up living with them for the rest of their life. So perhaps a ray of hope for the future?

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  3. A condensed primer on allergies and related treatment philosophies can be found at:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergy

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  4. *choke* Whatever the price, I always wonder "Hmm, is this why I have insurance?" (That seems to cover nothing!) It's frustrating.

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  5. That is an expensive brand medication. I know it works well, though. Kyle has used Singulair (his congestion & allergy problems seem to have mostly faded away). I wondered why you had to pay so much but then I read you have a high deductible. So it wouldn't matter if it were a generic, you'd have to pay the whole price for that too. If you go to www.singulair.com, you can answer some questions & receive up to $20 in savings. I read that the first patent for S expires in 8/12, so it will be awhile before a generic will be avail!

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  6. Oh. Yikes. That's enough to take your breath away!

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