Shopping Around for Prescription Drugs

I have many serious health problems and my medical expenses are tremendous (over $700 some months) so I was very excited when I began hearing all the buzz about how inexpensive Canadian prescriptions are compared to American drugs.  About a year ago, I tried to work my way through the maze of steps so I could order my prescriptions online from Canada; however, it was too confusing and I gave up. 

Recently, we've had several companies open in our County which do the prescription ordering process for you.  I'm sure they charge a fee (hidden in the cost of the drugs) but they don't disclose how much.  I went to one of these companies, Canada Direct, Inc. in Sebring, Florida.  I was shocked at the results!  Below are the actual comparisons for some of the drugs I take:

Accupril, 40 mg #100

drugstore.com $102.21
CanadaDirect, Inc. $91.63

Clonidine, 0.1 mg #100

drugstore.com $14.39
CanadaDirect, Inc. $28.07

Nadolol(generic for Corgard), 80 mg #100

drugstore.com $33.67
CanadaDirect, Inc. $44.80

Digitek(generic for Lanoxin), ..25 mg #100

drugstore.com $14.00
CanadaDirect, Inc. $30.26 (generic not available)

Furosemide (generic for Lasix), 20 mg #30

drugstore.com $8.99

CanadaDirect, Inc. $11.83 (again, generic not available)

Symmetrel(generic for Amantadine), 100 mg #100

drugstore.com $31.65
CanadaDirect, Inc. $60.02 (generic not available)

There is an additional $15.00 shipping charge per order.  Not all drugs can be shipped safely (like some types of insulin), either.  Other Canadian prescription drug companies may be less expensive than this, too.  I've only compared the one.

Before I found drugstore.com, I called every local pharmacy in our County to compare prices on the prescriptions I was taking then.  My husband thought I was nuts to waste so much time.  I shocked him (and a woman who overheard all my phoning), however, when I found there was as much as an $80.00 difference locally on some of my prescriptions.  He became proud of all the work I'd just done and she said she was going to go home and call around for prices on her mother's prescriptions!  I still do periodic price checks to make sure I am paying the least expensive price.

There are assistance programs through many of the drug companies (Matthew Lesko talks about some of these programs in his books) and through some of the larger medical facilities, which may be helpful for some of your readers to know about.  Although we don't meet the requirements for any government assistance programs, my husband and I only make about $25,000 per year. 

My medical expenses eat up nearly half of that amount and none of the government programs take expenses into account when evaluating an applicant.  This means I have to do everything I possibly can to lessen my medical expenses, including limit my prescriptions to those which are medically necessary.  I don't take any of the medications prescribed for pain (usually very expensive) or which help me to be comfortable in some other way.  I would be very interested in hearing hints other readers have to cut their medical (including prescription) costs.

I have found that even with all the hype about how cheap Canadian prescription drugs are, one must still be an informed consumer in order to be truly thrifty.