[danbmil99]

I recently switched insurance and was surprised to find that a generic drug I take cost me $500 for 30 tablets. Another generic I take is $10 for a hundred fifty tablets.

Pretty sure these ratios have nothing to do with the cost of production.

[hiram112]

It's doubtful that the insurance company is paying $500 either. I can't believe the type of scam these drug companies run.

I take a medication whose patent expired before I was born. Over the years the price has actually gotten more and more expensive in the US, though I've purchased it in the EU for around $20 / month.

In the US, using my insurance card, the pharmacy charges me $175. I pay that out of pocket until I hit my deductible of $2K, so it is quite expensive.

However, if I don't use my insurance card, the pharmacy has a 'different' price of $40. WTF? My insurance company is apparently in bed with the pharmacy and manufacturer to rip off their own insured customers.

So I pay for it with cash for $40 without using my card, and then submit it later towards my deductible (which of course they deny 'till I threaten small claims court).

It's absurd and would be a violation of RICO laws for any other industry.

Regardless, if you're paying out of pocket due to a high deductible, use GoodRx at the pharmacy without even mentioning your insurance - just pretend you're completely uninsured - and then submit the receipt later. It will save you a lot cash.

* https://www.goodrx.com/

[TheOtherHobbes]

"My insurance company is apparently in bed with the pharmacy and manufacturer to rip off their own insured customers."

Yes. And so are hospitals and other medical service providers, many of whom are owned by the same companies that own the insurers.

[effingwewt]

+1 for goodrx, they helped a LOT when I was doing residential and commercial carpentry and had a piece of slag bounced off my cheekbone, up under my safety glasses and right into my eyeball.

Many flushings and a few days later I go to the ER (after being threatened with being fired if I applied for workman's comp).

ER doc numbed my eye and scraped out the slag and metal shards in my eye. Prescribed generic antibiotic eye drops.

I thought cool antibiotics arent expensive and per the manufacturer website is literally just diluted penicillin in an eye dropper. Boy was I wrong! 200 with insurance copay, 150 if i paid cash no insurance. Was recommended goodrx by the pharmacist and in 5 mins had created an account and had a valid 'coupon' for the drops at $50.

It's incredibly sad this is where our country is at with regards to health care, that we have to find workarounds like this.

[jariel]

" nothing to do with the cost of production."

The cost of production is generally not a meaningful measure of underlying costs. Although sometimes it is.

Drugs are a little bit like software 'making is hard' while 'copying is cheap'.

Of course, most software doesn't save lives.

[Broken_Hippo]

Honestly: I don't know enough about drug production to say. That said:

I can see how one generic would be vastly more to produce than another. For example: Prozac's generic is widely taken, as are generic antibiotics and antihistamines. These probably don't require a special batch of pills and can pretty well have dedicated machinery that gets used fully.

In contrast: One Multiple Sclerosis drug, a pill, recently became generic. MS isn't exactly as widespread as allergies, depression, or bacterial infections and not everyone on MS takes this drug. It is cheaper than the name brand - which can easily cost $5k per month - but even as a generic, it is a specialty medicine. I'm not convinced the price is fair in this case, but I am guessing that the manufacturing is quite a bit more expensive due to things like cleaning the old drug out before batching this one and working in smaller batches.

I also sometimes have questions about the difficulty in producing different chemicals: I'm sure some drugs take more power and more steps than others.

Unfortunately, though, there is little to no transparency in drug prices and they don't have to justify their prices to insurances - though, IIRC, some nations do require some types of justification (must work better than the lower-priced alternative already on the market, for example).

[onetimemanytime]

what's the name..if you can tell without revealing any sensitive condition? Almost all these meds can be obtained for pennies outside USA. Usually Wikipedia has a price range