America, the price of your OTC meds are about to rise...significantly

debodun said:
I used to get Rexall calcium gel caps at Dollar General. A large bottle was something like $5. They haven't stocked them in over a year. Now I have to get hard pills at Walgreens and they cost almost $20.
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I get my calcium and iron supplements on Amazon during Black Friday sales.
 

David962 said:
I saw a video on YouTube one time that showed the reaction of people in Britain once they found out the cost of meds in the US.

It just seems to me that if someone doesn't have any insurance in America they are totally screwed. Even for something simple like an inhaler.
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We have a dear and older friend who is a knuckle head. He ran into an obstacle at the VA years ago. It took SO to walk him through the process to have not only full coverage but with his local doctor due to location. I told my doctor and she helped out with inhaler samples. The purple discs whatever that is.

There is one couple I know who has had no insurance. Too expensive. Nice neighborhood, rental houses, worked in oil. She was a pharmacist before they married and had two kids. It is cheaper to have the kids on Sooner Care which is free coverage for uninsured. Parents went to the ER where patients have to be seen.

There are so many programs most state based it is hard to not find a suitable solution.
 
I'd just stockpile as much as I can now and have been doing this since last summer. I take almost no meds at all preferring to rely on nutrition but I do get injured and then need is need because I want to recover which injury makes urgent It's true India has a great selection of meds for people, I've used them in the past, but even their prices have been going up.
 

Don M. said:
One of the bigger reasons for high drug prices in the US is these endless "Ask your doctor" TV ads. The only nations which allow this propaganda are the US and New Zealand. The drug companies spend billions/yr. on this nonsense, and the costs are ultimately passed along to the consumer.
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Those ads are just incredible. How the hell are they even allowed?
 
Babs2u said:
This is due to the cost of Xarelto and Farxiga.
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I take Farxiga, and I just made an appointment with my Endo to tell her I need a generic med that will do the same thing. Not to mention, I've been on Metformin, Glipizide and a couple of others for years, and now I'm on Insulin as well. I don't want any brand name meds. Farxiga, Breo and my pen needles are the only brand name meds I have, and I don't think I really need Farxiga.

What really irritates me is BD pen needles are a brand name, but some of the generic pen needles they have tried to pawn off as being from "brand name" companies are junk. I get injection site infections all the time with those, and I never do with BD's. One particular "brand" they like is TruePlus. A box of 100 BD Pen Needles retails for $40, and a box of 100 TruePlus Pen Needles retails for $15. That says "Generic" to me. And with both, my co-pays are the same.

Sure, a company's name is their brand and all that, but for the difference in quality of some of them, I told one of the Pharmacists at my pharmacy that I would decline all other brands other than BD due to low quality. He told me that if I have the Doctor write "BD Pen Needles only" on the prescription that by federal law, that's all they can give you. So I did that and I don't get generic pen needles at brand name prices anymore.
 
I had my lower lumbar spine rebuilt on 1/20. I left the hospital on 1/22. The surgeon ordered me prescriptions of Dilaudid and another Rx, Tizanidine for muscle spasms. I refused both. I found that Advil works just as good, but seldom use any.

I also had pneumonia and was given a supply of inhalers named Trelegy. It really helped to make breathing less difficult.
 
Here’s a tip when the drug ads show on TV. Close your eyes and listen to what is said. Don’t watch the movies of happy beautiful people playing tennis, vacationing at resorts, skiing down the slopes, and playing with their grandchildren. Before you decide you need Pretenda, just listen. It may not sound as good as it looks.
 
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Don M. said:
One of the bigger reasons for high drug prices in the US is these endless "Ask your doctor" TV ads. The only nations which allow this propaganda are the US and New Zealand. The drug companies spend billions/yr. on this nonsense, and the costs are ultimately passed along to the consumer.
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In a perfect world those ads would be illegal.
 
Babs2u said:
This is due to the cost of Xarelto and Farxiga. I can get an occasional sample but this just pushes the $2000. cap farther down the line.
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I just did a search for Farxiga here in Canada at a retail pharmacy in Toronto. The price for 30 days of the 5 mg tablet is $89.99 in Canadian dollars, the US conversion would be $58.49. How does that compare to what you are paying in the USA ? I also found Xarelto for sale at the same pharmacy for $349.00 CDN which is $223.00 USD. Those are 10 mg tablets. JIMB.
 
Don M. said:
The drug companies are quite generous with their political campaign donations....making it very unlikely that Congress would ever place any limitations on these drug producers.
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Meanwhile in Canada, corporations and trade unions are PROHIBITED from making ANY donations to a political party or candidate. Individual Canadians can make a donation to a party or a candidate BUT that is limited to only $1,700 per year. In practice the vast majority of Canadian voters are NOT members of any political party, and for sure you don't have to be one in order to vote here. Different country, different rules.
 
chic said:
I'd just stockpile as much as I can now and have been doing this since last summer. I take almost no meds at all preferring to rely on nutrition but I do get injured and then need is need because I want to recover which injury makes urgent It's true India has a great selection of meds for people, I've used them in the past, but even their prices have been going up.
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I do that as well.. even tho' our meds are affordable, but at any one time that can change.. I also stockpile prescription meds if they have a long use by date..
 
**sigh**

If you live in a country where you deliver medical treatment for profit, then I'm not sure what you expect to happen. If you unleash pure capitalist principles into the medicine market, then you're going to get profiteering, using the patent system as leverage. Thus, you pay as much as can be humanly extracted from the patient.

In such a system, there can be little complaint if aspirin rises in price to astronomical levels (as a random drug choice). Or that corporations with limited exclusivity will prioritize profit over care. Same with any medical costs, be it doctor visits or hospital beds. Medical insurance helps, but it's tied to employment in most cases, which means you might well make professional decisions based on medical concerns, rather than skill wise.

The US has an interesting system, and it ends up costing the rest of the world. I'd complain about medical/drug costs in the US too - but the fact is. it's the system the US has embraced, and there is no sign it will ever change. Care is just another for profit enterprise.
 
911 said:
I also had pneumonia and was given a supply of inhalers named Trelegy. It really helped to make breathing less difficult.
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That's why I still take Breo. I always ask my Doctors (PC and Pulmonologist) after they listen to my lungs if they hear any indication of Emphysema, as I was told by my Doctor in Eureka that she could "hear the beginning crackles" in 2006. They fortunately say they do not. So once again I'm glad I quit smoking.
 
VaughanJB said:
If you unleash pure capitalist principles into the medicine market, then you're going to get profiteering, using the patent system as leverage. Thus, you pay as much as can be humanly extracted from the patient.
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Ain't that the truth! Back in 2008 my wife had all kinds of health problems and was given a prescription for Zofran 4 times a day. At that time Zofran was $35 per pill. Our Pharmacist told us that a 30 supply was going to be $4,200 a month! There was no way we could afford that.

So we talked to the Doc and she prescribed something else that was cheaper but didn't work anywhere near as well, while we waited for a decision from our drug plan as to whether they would cover it. Fortunately they decided to, so she was only on the other medication for two weeks.

In 2016 after I had Colon Cancer surgery, my Doc wrote a prescription for it for 3 times a day. I told him we couldn't afford it. He then told us that Zofran's Patent had expired and that there was a generic called Ondansetron that was 17¢ a pill. How's that as an example of using the patent system as leverage? That $35 per pill BS was because the primary use was for treating cancer patient's nausea and it was fueled GlaxoSmithKline's greed.
 
From the article.

Quote
"The price of over-the-counter pain medicines, antibiotics, and supplements MAY spike following the new tariffs on imports from China."

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"Tariffs on Mexico and Canada COULD affect the price and availability of additional medications and medical devices."

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"In addition to POTENTIAL price hikes.

The words in caps are there for a reason. If in the article the words MAY & COULD were not there & the word WILL was with a specific percent I'd be a little more impressed.

POTENTIAL another word that stirs the emotion but says nothing.

I don't know about the needs of others but 225 Tylenol caps would last me a lifetime.

Tylenol Extra Strength Coated Tablets with Acetaminophen 500mg, 225 Ct
$19.97

When people panicked about toilet paper I didn't. I don't intend to rush out & stock pile anything.
 

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