If I Don’t Laugh…

I will cry.

I have a prescription I take daily to help decrease the number, and diminish the intensity, of migraines. And it does a good enough job for me that I want to take it without fail.

When my previous employer switched insurance plans about a year and a half ago to a high deductible plan, I took the opportunity to max out my refills of all my daily meds. For this particular script I happen to take half the prescribed dosage so it lasts me twice as long. Therefore, I didn’t need to refill it until early this year.

Now I knew it would be expensive. I had worked the little price estimator on the mail-in pharmacy website…and thought I had a ball park number.

Well. Wrong. After sending in my new prescription, the credit card fraud department called and asked about an OUTRAGEOUS amount being charged to an online pharmacy, using the company initials which Wonderful Guy didn’t recognize, and who was not expecting an OUTRAGEOUS charge, thereby prompting the canceling and reissuing of our charge card.

And prompting phone calls by me to the pharmacy. And questions. Like WTH?! (And they are like...well, we can use another card, and I am all so if I am going to spend this OUTRAGEOUS amount you can darn well bet I am going to get my cash back, baby cakes!)

But guess what. I need this stuff. So we paid for it and I keep taking it. (Let’s not go to that place about a basically healthy, employed, insured woman ending up paying this OUTRAGEOUS amount, and the crazy upsidedown health care system.)

Now we know. Now we budget for it.

As fate would have, we had to sign me up on Wonderful Guy’s insurance when I change jobs (I am now working without benefits…except for the singular benefit of being paid regularly and on time…). So we have a chance to plan ahead.

We upgrade to the prescription co-pay! See how smart!

Well. I require change in another one of my daily meds, so before sending in the script to the new mail order service, I was familiarizing myself with the process, checking out the price estimator, and thought ‘hmmm…wonder if this service will charge me as OUTRAGEOUS a price for 'the other' as my previous service.’

Oh. My.

They offer a generic of this med for 3% of what we paid. That is not a typo. 3%. And the name brand is less than half of what we paid.

I wanted to throw up. Because we are talking an OUTRAGEOUS amount here that I am feeling pretty much squandered at this point.

I am wondering what is going on. Was the generic box not checked on the script? Was the other company just a price gouger? Was the generic not available?

Well, I checked on that last question. Guess what.

One week after my script was filled…the FDA approved the generic. (I am in the business. I know how to look things up….way after the fact, but still!)

One freakin’ week.

Yep.

Timing is everything.