Aside from food, transportation, education, and medicine are three other important and common expenses in many households in the US and other countries. Combined, these essential items make up the bulk of expenses where a person’s monthly salary goes.
Among them, prescription medication is perhaps the most critical, especially if the medicine is for a particular illness that could lead to death when not properly managed through medicines. And, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, many furloughed rank-and-file employees have to decide on installment loans versus payday loans to get money to tide them over until things start going back to normal in their respective companies.
They also have to either buy fewer medicines to make do with whatever money they have left or completely forego their medication for the time being and allocate the money for food, shelter, and other household expenses.
If you’re currently in a somewhat similar situation and you need to find ways on how to save money on prescription drugs, here are six tricks you should explore soon:
Get them for free
What’s the best way to save big on your prescription medication? The answer: to get them for free.
Many are unaware that there are several tricks on how to get such medicines without spending a single dollar.
First, you can try writing the drug manufacturer to request free medicines as some offer prescription assistance to qualified individuals. You’ll need your doctor’s written consent, proof of your financial situation, and even your health insurance to determine whether you can’t pay for your medication.
Second, you can connect with a non-profit organization that focuses specifically on providing different kinds of assistance to individuals who can’t afford the buy their medicines. You should try reaching to Needy Meds, Partnership for Prescription Assistance, and Together RX Access to see if they can help you with your prescription medicine requirements.
Always ask for generics
Just because a medicine is generic doesn’t mean it’s never going to work. The truth is that generic medicines are essentially just as effective as branded ones, with the main difference being in their price points.
Money-wise generics are significantly cheaper than branded medicines, so you should always ask your doctor if a certain medicine has a corresponding generic version that you can afford with relative ease.
If you have several types of prescription medicines and you need to take all of them over an extended period, just imagine how much money you’ll save by buying generics instead of branded ones.
Canvass for better-priced medicines
This might require you to do some legwork, but the savings you’ll get would be worth it.
The idea is to call several pharmacies to inquire about their prices for the medicines that you need and then to make a quick price comparison. This should give you a clear enough idea of which pharmacy offers the lowest price for the medicines that you need.
You could try calling them, visiting them one by one, or using a smartphone app to do the price comparison on your behalf. No matter which method you decide to choose, the same result would be in the form of savings out of your prescription medicine purchase.
Update your Medicare plan
If your current Medicare plan doesn’t cover the type of medicines that you need, you should consider updating it to cover the present prescription drugs that you take. You can do this move during the yearly enrollment, which happens from October 15 to December 7.
With this simple technique, your updated Medicare plan should cover the current set of prescriptions that your doctor ordered, so you won’t have to worry about not getting them.
Consider getting a larger supply
If your long-term medicines are not long enough, then you should explore the option of getting a larger supply soon. For example, you should ask if it’s possible to get a 90-day worth of supply instead of a 30-day supply. This should slash the number of insurance copays you have to deal with, which easily translates to money saved in the process.
Avail of discount cards
Some organizations provide people with drug discount cards; some of which are for free, while others are requiring certain eligibility. Whatever the case may be, getting as many drug discount cards that you can have would go a long way in helping you enjoy big discounts on your regular drug purchases.
Getting the life-saving prescription drugs that you need shouldn’t be stressful at all. With these tricks to guide you, saving big dollars on your medication should be easy and stress-free.
