Okay, so I've been griping about the high cost of my blood pressure medication and then Walmart announces $4 drugs. And they are starting this pricing in Florida, where I spend quite a bit of time. Could that solve my problem?
I take six pills every day and they cost me $414 per month. Walmart's pricing would cut that to $24 if, and this is a big IF, the drugs I take were generics. Well, it turns out that two of my pills are generic. A third is a non-generic only because I take a time-release version (adding time release capabilities to a drug is one way that the drug companies extend their patent protection on proprietary drugs--like the time release version of Prozac that Eli Lilly came out with about the time that the original formulation came off patent).
So, it turns out that if I shift to Walmart in January, I could cut my monthly pill bill from $414 to $332, still way out of line IMHO, enough to lease a very nice Nissan.
However, I am seeing my cardiologist next month and will be pressing him for answers about the two most expensive drugs I take, Diovan and Inspra. The latter makes me feel ill (heart palpitations) and I am not taking it right now. (Let me know if you want to buy my excess supply--and if you are the FDA, try prosecuting me for it, the cause of citizens seeking sane health care pricing would love the publicity--middle-aged white arrested for selling heart drug.)
I will also ask my cardiologist what Diovan does for me that a generic cannot. If I could get a generic alternative to Diovan, substitute a generic statin for Lipitor, use something like Tenoric for the Atenolol and Inspira, I would achieve a $20 monthly pill bill at Wally World. Wahoo!
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