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by jtchang 1586 days ago
The point is that I have to drive to a local walmart and deal with insurance. That sounds harder.
2 comments

I don't know about other insurance plans, but mine is virtually contact-free: my doctor prescribes me something, and I pick it up at a nearby pharmacy within an hour. The billing is taken care of for me, and I don't hear a peep from the insurance company other than a line item on their monthly letter.

OTOH, this seems like a blessing for the un[der]insured. But I took OP's comment to be one of critical optimism, not an attack on the company itself.

> I don't know about other insurance plans, but mine is virtually contact-free: my doctor prescribes me something, and I pick it up at a nearby pharmacy within an hour. The billing is taken care of for me, and I don't hear a peep from the insurance company other than a line item on their monthly letter.

This is basically standard in 2022.

My local pharmacy will even let me convert prescriptions to mail-order with automatic refill with a few clicks online.

They'll also phone up my doctor and ask for a 90-day prescription to make it easier if I want. They'll also call the doctor and request refills when the prescription is up.

> OTOH, this seems like a blessing for the un[der]insured.

Yes, but only if people read the fine print. As in my example above, it's actually more expensive to use Mark Cuban's pharmacy than your local Walmart for many prescriptions.

They are relying on people's assumption that it's the cheapest pharmacy around, and nobody in the media seems to be doing anything to investigate that claim. A couple minutes of research shows it's not really true.

Insurance is as simple as handing your insurance card to the pharmacy once. After that, it's in their system.

People generally go to the store to buy groceries anyway, so it's not a big deal to pick up a prescription while shopping.

Most pharmacies also have free delivery (via mail). CVS even does free same day delivery for $5/mo.