The Cost of Being Sick
We don't have prescription coverage. We dropped it on April 1st. Why? Well, it is really expensive. Since we are self-employed, we pay for our health insurance 100% out of pocket.
Each year, for the past three years, when renewal time comes around we have opted for less and less coverage simply based on the cost. Health Insurance has been going up 10, 15, 17% each and every year, but our income has not been able to match such a large increase. Is anyone in today's economy getting a 17% raise?
So to contain our overhead, we reduce our coverage. Now I am talking about keeping it cheap or anything, I am talking cost containment only. We spend over $10,000 a year for this coverage.
And so here I am sick, and I need drugs so I am shopping around. One of the drugs I need is called emend. Emend is a new release and is for nausea. For each chemo transfusion you need one three-pack. The three-pack has three pills which you take on Day 1, 2, and 3. My nurse oncologist warned me that these were expensive and to expect that my co-pay would be higher than normal. Her eyes widened when I explained that there was no co-pay, it was full-pay.
After my August 1st O-day meeting, I began doing some research and found that women on breastcancer.org were paying $282 for 2 3-packs! $282 to not throw up! Yesterday, I began to shop around, and here are the results of my research:
Costco: $207.99
Brooks: $239.00
CVS: $247.98
Drugstore.com: $181.33
Needless to say, drugstore.com has a new customer! I am really grateful to my doctors/nurses that they gave me enough time to price shop because the differences between these four outlets is huge and the drugs are the same.
Now if I was an insurance company, how much do you think I would be paying?
Each year, for the past three years, when renewal time comes around we have opted for less and less coverage simply based on the cost. Health Insurance has been going up 10, 15, 17% each and every year, but our income has not been able to match such a large increase. Is anyone in today's economy getting a 17% raise?
So to contain our overhead, we reduce our coverage. Now I am talking about keeping it cheap or anything, I am talking cost containment only. We spend over $10,000 a year for this coverage.
And so here I am sick, and I need drugs so I am shopping around. One of the drugs I need is called emend. Emend is a new release and is for nausea. For each chemo transfusion you need one three-pack. The three-pack has three pills which you take on Day 1, 2, and 3. My nurse oncologist warned me that these were expensive and to expect that my co-pay would be higher than normal. Her eyes widened when I explained that there was no co-pay, it was full-pay.
After my August 1st O-day meeting, I began doing some research and found that women on breastcancer.org were paying $282 for 2 3-packs! $282 to not throw up! Yesterday, I began to shop around, and here are the results of my research:
Costco: $207.99
Brooks: $239.00
CVS: $247.98
Drugstore.com: $181.33
Needless to say, drugstore.com has a new customer! I am really grateful to my doctors/nurses that they gave me enough time to price shop because the differences between these four outlets is huge and the drugs are the same.
Now if I was an insurance company, how much do you think I would be paying?
posted by *susan* at
3:29 PM
1 Comments:
I still wonder if you can't negotiate some of this....can you talk to your hospital's finance division about that? When the hospital first called me, after I was diagnosed, they asked me if I would appreciate free financial counseling offered through the hospital. It might be a good way to learn to navigate the system if your hospital offers it? Since our insurance covers everything I didn't take them up on your offer but maybe they can walk you through some ideas for these crazy costs. Just a thought!
By
Kristina, at 12:26 AM
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