When I was diagnosed some years back I decided on an alternative medication, my neuro wasn't happy but I have done pretty good on it. Medicare dosent pay for any of my medications. I pay $25 dollars a month to get my low dose naltrexone from Florida because its a compounded medication and cheaper than getting it in NY. I just saw this article about how high the "conventional" medications cost ! I knew they were high but didn't realize how much the cost has increased.
A closer look at the specialty prescription drugs used to treat multiple sclerosis appears in a simultaneously issued report, The Facts About The Rising Cost of Prescription Drugs to Treat Multiple Sclerosis in Upstate New York. Assuming that 7,000 of the 13,000 people who have multiple sclerosis in upstate New York take prescription medications to treat their illness, the drug cost increases for multiple sclerosis treatments alone have added an additional $144 million to annual health care spending across upstate New York since 2005.
Added together, the drugs taken to treat multiple sclerosis cost upstate New Yorkers $258 million in 2010. The average wholesale price for one patient to have a year's worth of Avonex is $40,650 (an increase of 79 percent from 2006); 52 weeks of Copaxone costs $47,200 (up 112 percent from 2006).
"Although none of the specialty multiple sclerosis drugs provides a cure, people who have multiple sclerosis depend on these drugs to manage their disease and treat their symptoms," points out Vercillo. "Patients must continue taking the drugs for years to get the intended benefit. Those who have multiple sclerosis have no choice but to pay more for the same medications they've taken for years."
While six drugs have dominated the prescription drug category for multiple sclerosis, two new prescription drugs, Ampyra and Gilenya, were approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration in 2010. The average wholesale price of Ampyra is about $16,000 per year, which could be added to the prescription drug regimen that multiple sclerosis patients already take. The average wholesale price of Gilenya is expected to be more than $57,000. If Gilenya is substituted for the commonly used Avonex or Copaxone, Gilenya's higher cost would add $10,000 to $15,000 a year to treatment costs. Two to three other oral drugs await FDA approval in 2011.
Try pricing Simponi or Humira for rheumatoid arthritis ... WAL-Mart's "discount" cash price is $1700 each, and it's usually taken bi-weekly, or in some cases, weekly
Prices for medications are thru the roof - mainly because they know Insurance companies will pay it - or medicare/medicaid will pick up the tab.
Mobile OMG ! Reminds me of my MIL who had a real severe infection throughout her whole body, the antibiotic was over one thousand dollars.
Many people are not aware that if they cannot afford there medications many drug companies have a patient assistance program that will enable some to get there medications free or at reduced cost.
Mobile OMG ! Reminds me of my MIL who had a real severe infection throughout her whole body, the antibiotic was over one thousand dollars.
Many people are not aware that if they cannot afford there medications many drug companies have a patient assistance program that will enable some to get there medications free or at reduced cost.
Yes, the drug companies will offer a lower rate to the patient. You can just ask your doc for that drug company's rep in the area.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
One problem that needs to be addressed, is the fact that we pay, in some cases, 10X more for pharmaceuticals, than pretty much any other country, and please don't tell me it's because we do all the research, because that's just not so.
I'm sure we've all heard stories over the years, where a company just stopped making certain life critical drugs, because they weren't turning a profit on them, due to a low market demand. THERE are your "death panels", a phrase which Betsy McCaughey Ross, admitted to making up, (pulled it out of her butt) on the The Daily Show, She was fired the next morning.
Doctors, and hospitals are part, and parcel in this problem. Long ago, I went out with a girl, that was pre-med. More recently, I ran into her, at Albany Med (she's a Dr. now), and she confirmed what I had already suspected, that many doctors, and most certainly, many hospitals, are on the take, and it's been going on since the early 50s.
I had a bag in my hand. What's in the bag? Meds. Wadda you got there? Why are you taking Prilosec? Do you have heartburn? Not that I can remember. Stop taking it immediately, but you're going to be burping battery acid for a week, because it does have withdrawal symptoms. Who told you to do that? Home Town Health (I didn't have any type of insurance at the time).
I had a prescription for Advair (those purple disc things that lasts 2 months), and the first one, but only the first one was free. That's about as far as those "free things" from the drug companies will take you. They go for $249, a pop.
Medicaid? They are getting RAPED!
I had a friend, who was issued 6 of them per month and he gave me 14 of them. I'm looking at them right now, but I guess I'll be looking at them for quite some time.
the sad part is the rest of the punchline that we as whiny a$$ americans dont want to hear....JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS....drugs are palliative for the most part....fart sideways complain about it to the doc and bingo---the doc is doing EXACTLY what you wanted he/she to do.....bodily corrections--hahahahaha joke.....do you know how many folks 'fire' their docs because they dont get what they want....it's a soap opera out there....is there suffering????? YOU BETCHA!!.....do drugs help?? yup,,,just like a bottle of Jack....or the stuff coming from Mexico only it looks/acts more sophisticated..... we all take cold medicine because "WE ARE ANNOYED" at what our bodies NATURALLY do to fight off infection ie: runny nose,cough, runny eyes etc.... the only reason we take the drugs is to get back to work to make $$ because no one else is going to do it for us....same with kids...IT'S NORMAL coffee in the morning---love it....it clears my sinuses and puffy eyes....then I go to work.....drug??
whatever we do--------DONT LISTEN TO THE STUPID DRUG COMMERCIALS.......
BTW....PRILOSEC and those other heartburn drugs prevent your belly from having a natural balance and lowers the number of the good digesting bacteria that is naturally occuring....how about fixing your diet and paying attention?? nah,,we dont have time for that...
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
I think we should pay the average chemist more to come up with the latest Glad plug-in air freshener than to develop drugs. That would be productive, and smart. What good is 9 years of school including post-doctoral research if you can't help the human race for cheaper pay than a public school teacher, after all!
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
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