I do not have any form of health insurance. Since I happen to be someone who has chronic allergies, this means that I require some medications. This can be expensive, without health insurance. Fortunately, I have found some excellent alternatives to health insurance that made my medications affordable.
People who have severe allergies, like me, tend to require a certain amount of medications. Having health insurance can sometimes help lower the cost of the prescription medications that a person requires.
However, there are plenty of people who learn that their health insurance plan will not cover the cost of the specific medications that they are using at the time that they are approved for health insurance. If the plan does cover it, one cannot expect that it will continue to cover it next year. This type of nonsense makes me feel that paying for health insurance is, essentially, a gamble.
People like me, who are unable to find affordable health insurance, are pretty much “stuck”. I still require the medications that help me manage my severe allergies. I know for certain that I cannot expect an insurance policy to help me cover the cost of those medications. How is a person supposed to be able to pay for their medications, under these circumstances?
The antihistamine that I need to take daily is one that can be purchased over the counter. There is a less expensive generic version of it available as well. This medication cost even less if I buy the “big bottle”, instead of making three purchases of the smaller size.
What about for prescription medications? For that, I found an awesome company that helped me. The company is called Better Than Medicare. I spoke with a representative named Dwight who was helpful, efficient, and extremely knowledgable about what the company can do for me.
Right away, I was told exactly what the medication I needed would cost for me to purchase it through Better Than Medicare. I did not need to have a current prescription from a doctor in order to be able to purchase this life saving medication. Contrast that with how your insurance company keeps you in the dark about what you will be billed, and makes you go through “participating” doctors to get what you need.
My epi-pen has expired, and I need a new one. If I go through the American health system, without insurance, I wouldn’t be able to afford to buy a new epi-pen. My doctor says that I must make an office visit before she will write a new prescription for it. This will cost around $100.00. Then, I would need to go to a pharmacy, to purchase the epi-pen, which typically costs me around $100.00.
Buying a new epi-pen through Better Than Medicare was way less expensive. I don’t have to pay for a doctor’s visit before I can purchase a new epi-pen, so that drops my cost by $100.00. The epi-pen I have purchased from Better Than Medicare is the exact same brand as my old one, is an auto-injector, (like my old one), and contains the exact same dosage of epinephrine as my old one did. It will only cost me around $76.00, and it will be delivered directly to my mailbox.
Image by Dave77459 on Flickr