Price of medication

[jillybkul]

Hi All,

So how the heck does anyone afford these meds? I don't have prescription health coverage for name brands, and it only covers a minimal amount of generics. I can't change insurance for a number of reasons. My docs wanted to try Entocort and it's about $1800 per month. HELP ANYONE???

Jill

 

[ESMR]

Sorry can't help you. I have prescription health coverage and still it don't cover all the meds. I wonder what I'm gonna do if they put me on different meds that are not covered.

 

[theOcean]

Is there a public health insurance plan available to you? That's what I had to go on when my previous (private) one terminated. It covers most of my Humira, and other medications.

 

[jillybkul]

Is there a public health insurance plan available to you?

Only a sort of generic state plan, and it didn't help at all

 

[blackli]

Hi Ocean
I'm in Canada as well (Ontario) and wonder if you could tell me the name of the public insurance company you mentioned above? I'm self employed so I have no benefits for medication, and my GI wants me to try Remicade but I'm stalling due to the exorbitant price! I'm pretty sure they will give assistance if you qualify for it financially ( which I likely won't) but I don't want to have to sell my home to pay for meds I need

 

[theOcean]

blackli: I'm currently with Trillium, which helps cover your medication but in exchange they will take 2% of the monthly household income. You should talk to your GI about it, as they can probably help get you set up with it. I'm in Ontario as well.

 

[vonfunk]

It's called Trillium Drug Benefits. Everyone in Ontario is eligible regardless of if they have private drug insurance and it is the entire household that gets covered. It works on deductible system. When I went on it it was for Remicade, at the time I was making about 47k a year, my deductible for it was about $400 every 4 months. The deductible is directly related to your income, the more you make the more your deductible is.

 

[Axelfl3333]

Said it before I,ll never understand American healthcare,you need a national health system paid off general taxation,free at the point of need.
P.s I know the nhs isn,t perfect but it's pretty good and affordable,don,t believe fox news

 

[4peace]

Holy moly! $1800! What a rip off! I pay $10/month for entocort with insurance....just makes me sick how insane the cost is. Can you contact the non-generic maker of it? Sometimes they give deep discounts for medications. I wish I could send you all of my extras :/ good luck, as my mother used to say " where there's a Will, there's a way"

 

[jillybkul]

Holy moly! $1800! What a rip off! I pay $10/month for entocort with insurance....just makes me sick how insane the cost is. Can you contact the non-generic maker of it?

Thanks 4peace. This was the generic cost. I am trying to get in touch with the maker of the actual drug to see if they offer any assistance programs, but so far...no luck. I like your Mom's quote, it's a good one to remember.

Thanks~
Jill

 

[7vNH]

For someone in the US without Rx insurance (or someone with a high deductable they won't hit) I checked goodrx.com for 3mg budesonide (generic Entocort). For 90 pills (I think thats a 30 day supply) it costs about $1300 ($14 per pill!!).

Going to CanadaDrugsOnline you can get 200 for $149 ($0.75 per pill).

Is this insane, or what?

 

[jillybkul]

It is COMPLETELY INSANE~

jill

 

[7vNH]

My doctor's assistant just called and said she'd fax a prescription over to CanadaDrugsOnline for me.

Warning: I don't know for sure that these guys will deliver, but I'm going to try it!

imgur.com FdMxPRQ

(the image shows $149 for 200 budesonide 3mg which is 1/20th of the price I'd pay at my pharmacy down the street)

 

[sickofcrohns]

The deductible is directly related to your income, the more you make the more your deductible is.

It's a sliding scale depending on your household income. If you have more than one income-earner in the household, the deductible is based on the total. That said, it's not a huge deductible given the costs of the medication. I pay 4% of my income per year towards medicine and get to keep the other 96% (minus taxes, etc.) Even so, I have yet to make more gross income in one year than I cost the government in Remicade! :rof:

I get into lots of gory details about the ins and outs of the Trillium Drug program (with links) on my blog, sickofcrohns.ca.

For those of you in the US, I really hope you can find a way to have coverage for the medicine you need. :ghug:

 

[vonfunk]

Thanks for the correction, I live by myself. I generally don't think in terms of households.

 

[7vNH]

I was able to get generic Entocort for much less by ordering from outside the US. This is NOT Entocort, though. It is called Budez CR. It was dispensed by Medea Pharmacy, Mumbai India and shipped through London.

The process was similar to using the pharmacy in my neighborhood, except I had to pre-pay. Once I had my order number, I had my doctors office fax a prescription to the pharmacy (that just so happened to be in Canada), and asked that the fax include my order number. 10 or 12 days later, I got the package in the mail.

It turns out, though, that I will not be using this medication at all because after using the 24 sample pills of Uceris (9mg delayed release, 1 per day), my teeth hurt so bad! And now I'm trying another treatment, so I won't be needing this. Luckily I didn't pay $3,000 or $4,000 for this 66 day supply!

 

[nogutsnoglory]

Can you call Astrazeneca to see if they can assist you with free or lower cost for the entocort?

I have this issue with Zofran, they only cover a few pills a month and anymore would cost me in the hundreds.

 

[7vNH]

Here is a table I put together this morning. The bottom line is that even though we have a generic budesonide, our price for that is THIRTY TIMES what the maximum price is India.

The prices below are per pill.

                                                             Max        Max          Lowest US                Canada     Canada Mail  
            US          pill                                 Retail     Retail       (generic if   US Price   Mail       Order Price 
Product     Equivalent  mass  Compound                       Rupees     Dollars      available)    Multiple   Order      Multiple
                                                                                     


Mesacol OD  [wiki2="Lialda"]Lialda[/wiki2]      1.2g  [wiki2="Mesalamine"]mesalamine[/wiki2] prolonged release      22.145     $0.362          $7.222    20X        $0.888      2X
                                                                                     
Budez CR    Entocort    3mg   budesonide controlled release     13.600     $0.220          $6.667    30X        $0.745      3X
                                                                                     
Naltima-50  Revia       50mg  naltrexone hydrochloride          59.150     $0.970          $1.267     1X        $2.333      2X

 

[mmac]

Had to stop Humira about 9 weeks ago because of a severe allergic reaction. Insurance does not want to cover Stelara, which my doctor feels is my best option. Contacted the speciality pharmacy to purchase the medicine without insurance and they advised a cost of us $ 18,000 for the dosage I needed (90mg)!!!!!!! Who can pay that....

 

[7vNH]

Had to stop Humira about 9 weeks ago because of a severe allergic reaction. Insurance does not want to cover Stelara, which my doctor feels is my best option. Contacted the speciality pharmacy to purchase the medicine without insurance and they advised a cost of us $ 18,000 for the dosage I needed (90mg)!!!!!!! Who can pay that....

Yeah, and it's not like you're buying a cure or anything...just something to twiddle the immune system for a while until you need to drop anothe 18 grand. Doesn't come off patent until 2023. You might be able to get 10 grand off your first dose, so it's "only" 8 grand! Like any good drug pusher, they only make it cheap at the start...after that, they take every dime.