Hey my once daily inhaler I use every day of the week was only $326.60 this month. Neato.
Three hundred and twenty six dollars every fucking month. And sixty fucking cents. WITH INSURANCE. It's six hundred fucking dollars without insurance!
Healthcare is a fuck.
Saint Luigi protect us.
Try going to the pharmacy and asking to pay cash. Don't tell them you have insurance. The cash price is sometimes insanely cheaper, like $150-$200 cheaper in this case.
I can usually get an Albuterol inhaler for about $50 cash.
Also don't be afraid to shop around and ask a few places what their cash prices are on things.
I have been down that route, cash price is 800 at HEB, north of 750 at Walmart, CVS is close to 800. Without insurance, my best option is the Goodrx card thing, and even then it's a couple dollars over 600.
The mfgr used to offer a discount coupon, but it's only available once apparently, for "up to" 12 months and my discount off of it expired four months ago. It's tied to my ins ID so I can't just sign up for another one and do it again. It made it a 'manageable' $100 a month instead for about eight months
The office manager at my pulmonologists office and I used to date once upon a time so if she is working when I have an office visit I'll get a month or two's worth of samples to hold me over, but they haven't had any the last two times I've been. I've tried a few other inhalers that are much cheaper, but they just don't work on me like the expensive one does. Im just glad I don't have to use the higher dosage version. I've been taking this med for about two years now, and I've just gotten used to it. This month it just stings a little more than usual because I started a new job and am flat broke this month.
*fixed some sentences. Fat fingered my phone keyboard.
Have you tried budesonide-formoterol (Symbicort) it is a much cheaper dual action medication that is just as effective for most patients, with the benefit of having generic options available that can be purchased without insurance usually for under 100$, and is covered by most insurances.
I actually prefer it to Trelegy because it's an aerosol, so you usually have less problems with improper uptake and are less likely to have issues with things like thrush.
I've tried Symbicort, Breo Ellipta, Advair, Incruse Elliptra, Spiriva, and maybe one or two others over the last four/five years. Trelegy seems to keep me clear the longest. I've never actually gotten thrush from it, and I'm not the best about consistently rinsing after use. Now that I've typed that, I'll probably get thrush the next use with my luck. I've got a routine in the AM. Wipe down CPAP mask, two rips on the albuterol, three min apart, then rip on the trelegy.
Since this post went up I have gotten another appt at both my pulmonologists and my GP, to ask about equivalents, even if it's multiple inhalers, as the combination of medicines is available with two or more inhalers.
My appt at my lung Dr is in four weeks, GP is in eight or nine days. I'm also back on the cancellation list at both places so maybe something will pop up before then.
The real benefit of trelegy is that it's three medications in one. It's steroid, laba (Long-acting beta-agonist), and lama (Long-acting muscarinic antagonists ). Out of those three the one that is costing you the big bucks is the Lama, it's also the one that symbicort is missing, so it's probably the one that is making the difference for you.
Luckily I believe there is a generic option for a Lama inhaler (tiotropium bromide) that is less than a hundred bucks out of pocket with a coupon.
You would probably have much better coverage for something like a generic symbicort and a generic Spiriva (tiotropium). A lot of manufacturers basically keep doing different combinations to keep their drugs from being moved over to generics. So a combo is probably going to be the most effective cheap option for ya.
Good luck! I wish more providers took more time to consider their patients financial health as well, but unfortunately a lot of prescribers are just as lost as a lot of patients when it comes to understanding health coverage. The insurance and pharma companies like to make it as difficult as possible and offload all the blame on the healthcare providers.
have you considered just dating the pulmonologist?
For these prices I would book a cheap flight to Mexico and buy 10 of them
Not kidding it's a viable option.
Shit in the US near the border you will find tons of billboards for dentists in Mexico and such
I'm strongly considering it. I'm approx 100-150 miles from a part of the tex/mex border. I grew up even closer so I know where to go, I used to cross the border to go get drunk on weekends back in my teens and 20s.
I might have to become an international drug smuggler so I can continue to breathe.
Ugh that's a nightmare. Everyone in my family is in generics and pays cash so it's a "manageable" $300-$400/month for us to stay alive. Some of the non-generic scrips are insane.