Save in the Health Care Crisis5.051

50 Million Without Health Insurance?

Given the fact that unemployment rates and forclosures are still rising, it is likely that you may be one of almost 50 million people without health insurance. If you are not wealthy and you are not living below the poverty level, then affording medical treatment when you are sick if often not easy.

Our country clearly needs to come up with better ways of caring for the sick, but health care can be more affordable if you know where to look for it. Here are a few words of advice from someone who has worked in pharmacy, dealt with insurance providers on a daily basis, and knows exactly how to save money on health care expenses.

Save on Doctor Visits

For most ailments including colds, flu, allergy problems, or minor injures be sure to go to quick care clinics like those found at Walgreens, Walmart, or CVS. These quick care clinics usually are found in chain drug stores and more are popping up every day. Being seen at one of these clinics usually costs between $60 and $80 opposed to an urgent care, emergency room, or office visit which can all run you north of $100.

The quick care may not be able to treat your condition if it is something chronic like high cholesterol or elevated blood pressure. Prescriptions for these must be obtained from a primary care doctor.

Before you go to see a primary care doctor be sure to call and ask what his fees are. Tell them that you do not have insurance and ask for a discount. I know that a doctor’s visit is not a flea market, but there is no shame in asking. Insurance providers negotiate these rates all of the time, so why shouldn’t you?

While at the office make sure that the physician is aware of your financial situation and be sure to bring a print out of low cost drugs included in the $4 prescription plans as doctor’s are not often aware of the cost of the medications they prescribe. Also ask that only test that are absolutely necessary be order as these tests could cost you hundreds of additional dollars.

Save on Prescriptions

Here are links to $4 drug lists from Walmart and Target. You may even be able to save more on your prescription costs at discount clubs like Costco or Sam’s Club. I was not able to procure a $4 drug list from either of these websites, but I can tell you from personal experience that they are significantly less expensive than everyone else!

You can search for the price of specific drugs at Costco by using their drug pricing tool found at the bottom of the hyper-linked page. You may find the same drug that runs $50 at a chain pharmacy for less than $10 at one of these discount stores.

There are big differences in the business cost structures between stand-alone pharmacies like CVS and Walgreen’s vs Costco, Target, and Walmart and it is in your best interest as a health care consumer to take advantage of these. Don’t believe me? Just read the following article entitled, If Crack Dealers Took Lessons from Walgreen’s, They Really Would Be Rich.” It may not be completely fair to compare Walgreen’s to a crack dealer, but their business model just makes it impossible to compete on price with discount clubs.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments and I would be glad to assist you in any way I can.

Sincerely,

The Net Analyst