Health insurance plans are very specific about what types of medications they will cover. Generic medications cost less than the name brand version of the drug will cost. Lexapro recently became available as a generic. This can help people to save money on their health care needs.
Lexapro is a prescription medication that is used to treat depression. It is an antidepressant. It is part of a category of drugs that are called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Lexapro is the name brand of this particular drug.
In addition to depression, Lexapro is also used to treat anxiety in adults, major depressive disorder in adults, and major depressive disorder in adolescents who are at least 12 years of age. It is not used to treat children under the age of 12.
A name brand drug is one that can only be produced and sold by the company that holds the patent for that medication. It takes years for a company to bring a new drug to market and it can cost the company thousands of dollars to make that happen. That cost is passed on to the consumer who needs to purchase a brand name medication.
A generic drug is required by the FDA to have the same active ingredients as the name brand version of the drug. The generic drug might, or might not, have the same inactive ingredients as the name brand version. The FDA requires all generic drugs to be tested. Generic drugs are required to be as safe and effective as the name brand version is. It must have the same dosage and the same strength. It has to work the same way, be taken the same way, and must treat the same health conditions as the name brand version.
Once a medication is allowed to become generic, the cost of it goes down. The company that makes the generic version didn’t have to “start from scratch”, and spend thousands of dollars to do it. Generic drugs can cost anywhere between 30% less to 50% less than the name brands.
Every health insurance plan will have a list of preferred drugs. This is a list of the medications that the insurer will cover all, or part, of the cost of. It will include brand name medications, (but not all of them), and it might include some generic medications as well. If the drug that your doctor prescribed isn’t on your health insurance company’s preferred drug list, then you will be paying out of pocket for it.
In the past, Lexapro was only offered as a name brand medication. This meant that people who were using the medication needed to find a health insurance plan that would cover the cost of it. Now, there is a generic version of Lexapro. It is called escitalopram.
This is big news for people who need are using Lexapro. It means that they don’t have to search around for a health insurance plan that will specifically cover it. It also means that they can save some money on their medication if they buy the generic version.
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