Me: I'd like to pick up a prescription, please.Your homework assignment is a 500 word essay: compare and contrast this visit to the one after ObamaCare is rammed down our throats.
Friendly Neighborhood Pharmacist: That will be a $100 co-pay, sir.
Me: !!!
Me: Is there a generic?
FNP: [checks]
FNP: That will be a $10 co-pay, sir.
If you want to cheat and look at the answers, The 2 Things describes the key to understanding economics (as well as a ton of other things):
“Oh,” I said. “Okay, here are the Two Things about economics. One: Incentives matter. Two: There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
Just to add to the mess tho, the Wife works in line-extention for her phama company, and points out the difference between the formulation of the name-brand vs the generic.
ReplyDeleteSomtimes the generic works the same, sometimes better, sometimes worse. While the active ingredient is the same, how your body metabolises it, as well as the other compounds you're injesting, and what they turn into if in case you do the WRONG thing and keep your scripts in the medicine chest in your bathroom (that hot steamy air from your shower is BAD BAD news for perscriptions....best to keep them in your nightstand, or in a half-bath if you have one...cool and dry is the name of the game for stalling degridation).
Needless to say the wife has gotten VERY pissy at pharmacists when she gets a generic in her pick-up pack.
As with everything, trust no one, and do your own research!
Weer'd, that's a great point. We make sure that the doctor tells us (puts on the prescription, actually) whether generics are OK.
ReplyDeleteAnd as you say, sometimes that really don't work as well, or have side effects that are undesirable.
But we do try to be smart shoppers, and minimize the cost of what works acceptably. I doubt that will continue if/once the Fed.Gov runs health care.