2018 Health Insurance Increases

[Jer]

$50 for a prescription 20 years from now. That amuses me. I have prescriptions that are $400/month now.

...maybe in 20 years they'll be generics.

No, I'm saying that $10 you leave in the investment will be worth $50 20 years from now. My Coumadin is $10 now & my doctor's want to put me on the ones that are $400/mo. No thanks.

[tmckay2]

No, I'm saying that $10 you leave in the investment will be worth $50 20 years from now. My Coumadin is $10 now & my doctor's want to put me on the ones that are $400/mo. No thanks.

Xarelto, eliquis and pradaxa have manufacturer coupons to split the cost with your insurance and can often make them very affordable though not always. When you consider fewer clinic visits for INR checks it sometimes balances out.

[tmckay2]

$50 for a prescription 20 years from now. That amuses me. I have prescriptions that are $400/month now.

...maybe in 20 years they'll be generics.

PM me what scripts. I'm a pharmacist and might be able to find a way to make them cheaper. Not at my pharmacy either just in general.

That being said I see meds that expensive all the time so it might be a SOL situation.

[Jer]

Xarelto, eliquis and pradaxa have manufacturer coupons to split the cost with your insurance and can often make them very affordable though not always. When you consider fewer clinic visits for INR checks it sometimes balances out.

Trust me, I've already been through all of this. $10 for a 3 month supply of Coumadin and getting my blood drawn every other month for $15 cash is substantially cheaper than the cheapest method of getting any of those other three. I'm counting down the days when generics will be allowed for them because then maybe I can justify the cost but as of right now it's just insane. I'm on coumadin and that crap has been around forever so the interactions are well-known & everyone knows how to deal with it.

[tmckay2]

So does your insurance pay zero on them? Because if they pay anything there's a good chance to get any of the 3 for around $25

[hollohas]

Health care costs are astronomical now. We had our 3rd baby in December last year, a C section. Between the hospital bill for mom, the hospital bill for baby and the baby doctor bill for everything leading up to the birth, the total bill was over $38k. Family deductable is $6,000 and out-of-pocket max is $12k so it was a pricey one. So well over $20k last year for medical bills and premiums combined. WTF.

My 1st daughter was born in 2009 and cost us $1,000 out of pocket, all in. (and our premiums were a fraction of what they are now). My, how times have changed. F U Obama care.

[roberth]

I was pleasantly surprised today b/c my company did not raise my rates.

Now a few of us are wondering if we'll get raises.

[Gman]

No, I'm saying that $10 you leave in the investment will be worth $50 20 years from now. My Coumadin is $10 now & my doctor's want to put me on the ones that are $400/mo. No thanks.

If you're on multiple scripts, Coumadin interacts with damn near everything (including your diet), and they're pretty significant interactions. With some of the new boutique blood thinners, what can be a very long list of risky interactions on Coumadin could be significantly reduced to a couple of moderates. Another advantage is when you come off the blood thinners for surgery and go back on again after surgery. Going back on Coumadin can mean quite a few days of Lovenox injections while taking Coumadin to get your levels up. With the newer blood thinners, you can be back to thinned out in a single dose before you leave the hospital.

[Jer]

If you're on multiple scripts, Coumadin interacts with damn near everything (including your diet), and they're pretty significant interactions. With some of the new boutique blood thinners, what can be a very long list of risky interactions on Coumadin could be significantly reduced to a couple of moderates. Another advantage is when you come off the blood thinners for surgery and go back on again after surgery. Going back on Coumadin can mean quite a few days of Lovenox injections while taking Coumadin to get your levels up. With the newer blood thinners, you can be back to thinned out in a single dose before you leave the hospital.

I understand the cons of Coumadin but there are also pros. The fact that it's been around for so long means that the interactions you mention are very well known and for someone like me who is healthy (they still don't know how I ended up with PE in the first place) and only on one med it doesn't really matter. It's inexpensive, consistent and if I get into a car accident or something the antidote is likely not far away since so many are on it Vitamin K and how to use it is common. The interactions with the newer drugs still aren't fully known and they also don't have an antidote for them should it be needed.

I'm not anticipating any surgeries or other hospital stays so coming off and going back on isn't in the future. I did have a couple of oral surgeries while on it though and got pretty good at knowing how much to cut and when to get my INR right under the 1.8 that the Doctor wanted me at prior to surgery. No Lovenox shots afterwards either as I was able to get it back within the therapeutic range (2.0-3.0 for me) pretty easily. Even if I had to give the shots again for a couple of weeks it's not the end of the world and a couple weeks of those is still cheaper than a single month of the self-leveling meds.

The most paramount thing for me though is what I've already mentioned; price. I can pay about $3/mo for Coumadin or about $400/mo for one of the others. Coupons get it down to a little less than half of that but it's still no comparison. I'm not paying that per month for benefits that I personally won't ever see. Maybe years from now if I need to be on another medication, I get insurance that covers it, generics become available or something becomes life threatening I'll consider it.

As of now I'm not too concerned about it and I'm quite happy with my $10 prescription that lasts me three months that I'm not even sure I need to be on to begin with.

In many cases there are lots of medications available and each affects a person differently and has different pros and cons. For me, this one just works. I don't lose sleep over not being able to take one of the others instead (a couple of years ago I was more concerned about it because I thought it was a bigger deal than I soon realized it was) and it's not really something I think about unless it comes up in conversation like this. I eat well, workout 6 days a week, live an active lifestyle and take care of myself. To me, that's the single most important factor to one's health.

This wasn't a thread about any of this though. I was just talking about how useful a HSA is and how you can have that money work for you and take advantage of compounding interest in yet another form of "retirement" account if you play your cards right.

[Gman]

My wife was on coumadin and they wanted her INR to be between 3.5 and 4.0. Was more difficult to maintain at that level. Glad to hear it works for you.