Thanks to Obummercare, and the latest hijacking of drug prices, this one has come back around… Still true 12 years later…
Let’s hear it for Costco!! (This is just mind-boggling!) Make sure you
read all the way past the list of the drugs. The woman that signed
below is a Budget Analyst out of federal Washington , DC offices.
Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active
ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost
a lot, since many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a
search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active
ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in
past issues of Life Extension, a significant percentage of drugs sold
in the United States contain active ingredients made in other
countries. In our independent investigation of how much profit drug
Companies really make, we obtained the actual price of active
ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs sold in America .
The data below speaks for itself. Go HERE for the story and the embedded link to pricing…
Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought
everyone should know about this. Please read the following and pass it
on. It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why
they can afford to put a Walgreen’s on every corner. On Monday night,
Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit
did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in
his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as
much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that’s not a typo: three thousand
percent! So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of
drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly
lies with the pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a
prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for
100 pills.
The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent,
they would only cost $80, making you think you are ‘saving’ $20. What
the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may
have only cost him $10!
At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether,
or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice,
and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost
for the generic drugs.
I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its
online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the
online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own
experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent
nausea in chemo patients.
I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS.
I checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for
$19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150
at Costco for $28.08.
I would like to mention, that although Costco is a ‘membership’ type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in. (This is true)
This is true in Canada, too. I went there this past Thursday and asked them.
I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and passing it into your own e-mail, and send it to everyone you know with an e-mail address.
Sharon L.
Budget Analyst
U.S. Department of Commerce
Gah… If things aren’t already bad enough, now the copays are going up (again), and the ones that are hurt the most are the elderly…
I doubt that the architect of ObamaCare gives a rat’s ass that the co-pays are going up. Old people don’t vote for him anyway.
I’ll keep Costco in mind…
It isn’t just the elderly, and some of the fall out is insidious. A friend of mine is a long time volunteer firefighter; he just resigned his post because his health coverage from his job will no longer adequately cover that sort of activity (despite the fact that the same sort of duties are part of his job for his employer). He said the change was directly linked to the coverage the company could afford now.
As for those of us who are self employed/working without benefits….I had perfectly good catastrophic insurance (I never go to the doctor, but the possibility of an incident with a car, chainsaw, or large animal is there). That insurance got tripled in price then cancelled, leaving me paying much more for services I don’t want and don’t need.
A couple years ago, my son had to get some high priced med.
Quoted at $230, $225 (where he placed an order).
Curious, while waiting, he went to Costco, $212.
He decided he had already committed at the other for $225.
As he was walking away he was asked if he had a membership.
He said yes.
$56.
And CVS is the worst.
Of course Express Scripts, if you can do it.
Darn. Now I’m going to need to research my Walgreen purchases.
I wish we had a Costco near me – I despise CVS.
+1 Mrs. Crankipants
And of course, getting same meds from north or south of our border is illegal. Which makes me thing that there’s a conspiracy to control price and availability? Nah, never happen here.
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All – thank you for the comments!
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