I've been having breathing problems for a while, and visited my doctor yesterday. It might be an allergy or might be asthma. I had an EKG test that was normal, and a chest x-ray. Tomorrow I'm having a pulmonary function test. The paranoid in me thinks I have this. Ugh.. that would suck.
My doctor proscribed Proventil, which is a "rescue inhaler". He also proscribed Asmanex, which is an inhaled steroid.
The Proventil cost me $15 as my insurance (Aetna PPO) co-pay.
The Asmanex cost me $39, apparently not eligible for the basic co-pay.
It's interesting to note that a lot of the medications we use are manufactured in India. The cost that Indians pay for medications are cents on the dollar compared to what we pay.
There is a service that I heard of where a person can order medications from India. Apparently they are very reliable and deliver what you order, and they consider prescriptions as "quaint".
The Proventil from this service costs $3 instead of $15.
The Asmanex from this service costs $2.70 instead of $39.
My doctor also gave me a 3 week supply of a drug called Singulair. It helps ease the constriction in the lungs caused by allergies or asthma.
A 10 pack of the Singulair from the Indian service costs $3.50. It would cost me, at a minimum, my $15 co-pay from the local drug store... and if "mens health" is your thing.. you can get it for cents a pill instead of $10+ a pill.
Americans are being robbed.. quite literally.. and our government refuses to allow any competition for the American prescription drug market. It is illegal to order your drugs from outside the U.S. This is because the drug lobby controls our Congress and they will not allow competition for their drugs - even if it's their own drugs.
Fucking criminal.
6 comments:
The fact that you are needing these alerts me. Why? Are you ok? I use much the same stuff you use, just with different names. Good stuff and keeps the your asthma at bay.
Just some asthma like symptoms. I, personally, think it's just allergic reactions and that's not a big deal.
I don't know if I would order drugs from India, but I might do so from Canada or western European countries.
Fact is, I'm willing to pay more to be sure that what's going in me is quality stuff. Hence why I never buy generic brand foods.
I find ordering drugs from India to be suscpicous. First, do you really know that they are the drugs you ordered? I mean, neither you nor I have the background in pharmacology to test them.
Second, what's the shipping like? Even if you bought 2 of each, I imagine the shipping would be insane. Maybe not, but it seems that way.
Thirdly, I DO agree that the drug companies price gouge, I just don't just like the idea of regulating drugs from outside the country. The FDA is a great concept it just needs less drug company influence.
Well, you do some research before you buy anything. There are a wealth of resources that help you verify the legitimacy of who you are dealing with.
In many cases, the drugs we use every day are manufactured in India. It's not unusual for those exact same drugs to be repackaged as generics for the Indian market.
By the way.. India is not 3rd world. I'd trust them over the Mexican businesses every single time.
The shipping costs are not cheap, but if you have a chronic condition you can bulk buy and save a huge amount of money.
When you start having to pay a couple hundred bucks a month for a medication that you can't live without.. you might start to understand.
If I end up having to go on Singulair and/or Asmanex as a daily med, I'm inclined to give Big Pharma the finger.
By the say.. I linked to one such service.. already researched out and verified.
I just read my last point over again, and now feel obligated to apologize to anyone who read it.
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