Posts Tagged ‘prescription drug cost’

Robbing a Bank to Afford HealthCare

Posted by on June 23rd, 2011

With Americans paying the highest prescription drug costs in the world, and the costs of both medication and other health care products and services vastly rising above the rate of inflation every year, it’s no surprise that some people are getting desperate to afford their healthcare.

At CanadaDrugs.com we hear stories everyday from our customers about how before they found or were referred to us, they were cutting back on their food budget, or skipping other household bills just to afford the valuable prescription medication that they need. We know that there are millions more out there who can’t afford to take the medications they need, and that is why we need to keep getting the word out that there is relief and an affordable alternative.

There are over a hundred million American’s that  still lack adequate coverage to pay for prescription mediation and afford other health care costs. And even those with insurance, struggle with high co-pays or get stuck in Medicare Part-D doughnut hole. These are the people that CanadaDrugs.com is in business to help.

A story that was making the rounds of newspapers and cable TV shows last week is a perfect illustration of the absurdity of high drug and medical costs that people struggle with. Richard James Verone, an unemployed, uninsured 59-year-old from North Carolina decided that the best way to afford medical treatment was to rob a bank, not for the money inside the vault, but so he could be sent to prison and receive free medical care and drugs.  He asked the teller for only $1 with the hope he would be given the care he could not afford. The LA Times reported that however, he would be charged with a lesser offense and would more likely not receive a prison sentence. The Times closed with this telling statement about Richard James Verone:

“Maybe he should call the judge names at his trial for a charge of contempt of court. Or, better yet, maybe lawmakers should realize that when Americans are willing to trade in their freedom for healthcare, they may stoop to more desperate measures than holding up banks for a buck.”

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Patients Struggle to Afford Prescription Drugs

Posted by on March 4th, 2011

Canada Drugs was founded in 2001 in response to the rising costs of prescription medication that many people found a burden to afford. We set out with a goal to provide our customers access to affordable, safe, and quality prescription medication that they otherwise might have never been able to have accesses to if it wasn’t for the savings we offered.

Over our near decade of dedicated service to our customers we have heard many times that if it wasn’t for Canada Drugs that some of our customers would have simply gone without their essential medication or taken improper doses to stretch their budget until the end of the month.

The latest Consumer Index Report confirmed that the same reason we set out to offer people a lower priced option a decade ago is as valid as ever 10 years later. The Consumer Reports Index, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, is a monthly telephone and cell phone poll of a nationally representative probability sample of American adults. In this latest economic downturn where many people are finding it even harder to stretch their dollars it is being reported that one of the first things that people are doing is cutting back on the money they budget toward their prescriptions. The January report found that almost 70% of Americans who regularly take prescription medications have taken immediate steps to find ways to make it more affordable. Many of our customers found Canada Drugs for this exact reason, they were looking for how to save money on their medication and found us through searching online, hearing about us from family, friends or their doctors, or hearing about us in the news. We are proud to offer our customers an option to save them money and ensure that the prescription medication their doctor has determined they need can fit into their budget more easily.

More worrisome in the report was the fact that 28% of respondents reported that they resorted without their doctor or pharmacist’s knowledge to doing potentially dangerous actions to save money.

  • 16% failed to fill a prescription
  • 16% skipped a dose
  • 11% took an expired medication
  • 10% cut pills in half
  • 4% shared a prescription

Any of those cost saving measures can pose significant health risks. In addition to those risky moves to afford prescription drugs it was also reported in the same Consumer Index that people were cutting back on other purchases or were charging more on credit cards and putting off other bills to buy drugs right away.

  • Spent less on clothing (30%)
  • Cut back on groceries (23%)
  • Relied more on credit cards (23%)
  • Postponed paying other bills (15%)

With drug prices out pacing the inflation rate the cost of medication is going to increasingly stretch peoples ability to pay. Canada Drugs as the global leader in prescription drug savings is committed to finding the lowest cost suppliers of high quality medication and offering our customers the opportunity to afford their prescriptions. We work hard to offer lower priced medication because we are concerned when we see studies like this one that confirm what our Patient Service Representatives hear on the phone everyday, that without our service many people would go without their prescriptions.

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