I am a nurse and I have one very simple way for everyone to save on their healthcare. Buy all your meds at Walmart or a pharmacy that offers the three months supply for $10.00. If you ask the pharmacy, they will give you a printed list of their generic $10.00/90 days supply or $4.00 for a 30 day supply. Take this list with you when you go to your Dr. and he can prescribe from the list.
Generic meds are the same chemically as the name brand. This can save you bunches. If you have Medicare it can keep your costs low and you out of the doughnut hole. Also, never buy Tylenol, Advil, name brand aspirin, or Aleve; only buy the generic brand for these meds. The same with Claritin and Zyrtec. Read the ingredients on the box and they will be the same. The boxes sometimes say, "Compared to..". These meds are the same. All meds are allowed to go into generic form after their patents are up. Recently the very popular cholesterol lowering drug, Lipitor, has or will be made in generic form.
The pharmacist will also answer any questions to help you get the lowest price and can tell you a cheap form of a medicine comparable to a med you are taking for a certain illness. A good site to use for info is Web MD. Good luck!
By HAPPYINHARNED from Harned, KY
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
I agree with most of this post and I usually buy generic but there are some generic over-the-counter products that do not work as well as the brand. I've found this to be the case with heartburn meds. Thought this was just me until my Daughter and a close friend had the same experience with a generic heartburn med. Don't know why and the all the pharmacist could tell me was it may be something to do with the fillers.
Sorry HAPPYINHARNED but not all medicines are the same in generic. My sister in law learned that the hard way. Please ask your doctor and Pharmacist before you go and get an generic medicine! There is a little difference in them that is why there can be a generic and a brand medicine.
Sometimes a generic will work but sometimes you need a certain ingredient in that brand name medicine. I am talking prescribed and not prescribed medicine. Also please check all your medicine when you pick them up. People are human and they can make a mistake. Learn what your medicine looks like and keep a check on it.
Ditto about "not all generics work as well' from first hand experience so that's actually money spent that went down the drain. Also, I have a Medicare Part D plan that doesn't allow for me to get more than a once a month supply, except for emergency ordered by my doctor, of my particular meds so there is no way to get the extra three month supply discount even on the generics that do work :-(
Being a nurse does not make you a doctor or a pharmacist. While the ingredients in a drug may be the same, the buffers or coatings might be different which would make a difference to someone who had a condition like acid reflux.
Being a nurse doesn't make you a doctor or pharmacist but it does not mean you know less about drugs. And No, I'm not a nurse or a pharmacist or a doctor but I worked with them all for many years in a major teaching hospital. Doctor's prescribe the drugs for the condition that are promoted most by the drug representatives and brand will, more than likely be their first choice.
Pharmacists know more about drugs than doctors do and they'll tell you the same thing this nurse did. This person gave some good tips we all can benefit from and like everything else there are exceptions. Now I know someone's going to post that since I'm not a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist that I'm out of line but that's OK. Stay off the nurse's back.
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
