Help with healthcare costs??

[blenkins90]

Hi all,
Not sure if there's an expert here that has experience on this but basically, looking into 2019, I'm looking at increasing premiums for meds and am looking for a way to save. I looked into some online pharmacies for mail order plans because I'm on a handful of chronic meds, all of which are non-psych, I've heard of mail order programs as well as people buying from Canada (as a reputable source vs from international sellers) but am wondering if anyone can offer guidance on which plans are reliable?


Thanks!

[mr friendly guy]

Not an expert, and I am not trying to put a dampener on things, but how much cheaper are Canadian meds vs where you are, presumably the US. I mean I have heard Canada does have government subsidise healthcare for hospital, but my understanding is it doesn't extend to medications which you are prescribed via the family doctor. So they are still quite expensive. That was based on a Canadian news report I saw.

[Jub]

Not an expert, and I am not trying to put a dampener on things, but how much cheaper are Canadian meds vs where you are, presumably the US. I mean I have heard Canada does have government subsidise healthcare for hospital, but my understanding is it doesn't extend to medications which you are prescribed via the family doctor. So they are still quite expensive. That was based on a Canadian news report I saw.

I can confirm that most of our cost reduction comes at the counter via either our government or company supplied medical plan and that meds in Canada do still have a reasonably high base cost. That said high, by my standards, is like $30 for a prescription of 30 pills instead of the $5 I pay when I've remembered to file the forms to get proper coverage. This might still be cheap compared to your costs even once shipping is added to your meds.

[blenkins90]

Yeah, I actually found that local/big box pharmacies all have some sort of $4 per month plans ($10 for 3 month supply), but usually it's for generics only and seems to vary a little bit from retailer to retailer. (I'm US based) GoodRx comes up a lot too when you research this online and the prices are better than the $4/month $10 for 3 months. I also stumbled upon this service called SecureTabs, seems kinda similar to GoodRx but with even better prices. Does anyone have any experience with ordering from them? (HERE) It looks like it's FDA approved and has pretty good patient information for various prescriptions. I was thinking about ordering a 30 day supply of just one med to see how it goes, but before I do was wondering if anyone happened to have experience or know if Secure Tabs is also a "big name" like GoodRX?

[mr friendly guy]

Not an expert, and I am not trying to put a dampener on things, but how much cheaper are Canadian meds vs where you are, presumably the US. I mean I have heard Canada does have government subsidise healthcare for hospital, but my understanding is it doesn't extend to medications which you are prescribed via the family doctor. So they are still quite expensive. That was based on a Canadian news report I saw.

I can confirm that most of our cost reduction comes at the counter via either our government or company supplied medical plan and that meds in Canada do still have a reasonably high base cost. That said high, by my standards, is like $30 for a prescription of 30 pills instead of the $5 I pay when I've remembered to file the forms to get proper coverage. This might still be cheap compared to your costs even once shipping is added to your meds.

Bit of extra research, Canada (as of a few years ago) has the third highest medication cost below the US and Switzerland.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGu73RFT0BU

So it still could be potentially cheaper for the OP, and its from a safe country and also transport should be cheap since US and Canada share a border.

[mr friendly guy]

Too late to edit, but more information

Edit - more info
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhbr4FTo1Yc

Damn, its much cheaper in Canada vs US.

However I decided to compare to my own country. The first drug they compared was tetracyclines, and while we prescribe that class of drug, we tend to use doxycycline here, so can't compare it.

The next item compared with humira which was a ridiculous expensive drug and not something common. The last one was advair, which is a combination of fluticasone and salmeterol or as we call in Australia, Seretide.

One disc of advair /seretide in Canada was 124.06 Canadian which converts to the US in $95.24, and in the US it cost $350 US.
Looking at it at chemist warehouse, it costs only $7.39 AUD over here which translates to $5.26 USD.

Jesus, you guys in North America do pay a lot for your meds.

[Jub]

Too late to edit, but more information

Edit - more info
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhbr4FTo1Yc

Damn, its much cheaper in Canada vs US.

However I decided to compare to my own country. The first drug they compared was tetracyclines, and while we prescribe that class of drug, we tend to use doxycycline here, so can't compare it.

The next item compared with humira which was a ridiculous expensive drug and not something common. The last one was advair, which is a combination of fluticasone and salmeterol or as we call in Australia, Seretide.

One disc of advair /seretide in Canada was 124.06 Canadian which converts to the US in $95.24, and in the US it cost $350 US.
Looking at it at chemist warehouse, it costs only $7.39 AUD over here which translates to $5.26 USD.

Jesus, you guys in North America do pay a lot for your meds.

We don't usually pay that full cost. Depending on income you can get exemptions and quite a few jobs offer medical benefits as standard, but in general, Australia is better on that front than Canada is.

I wouldn't mind if we copied your methods of elections, post-secondary costs, and workers rights laws while we're at it.