DISQUS

Naja pallida · 1 month ago

One thing that hasn't really been spelled out, that probably should... even at $9.99 for a $441.37 MSRP medication, Costco is still making a profit. They wouldn't do it if they weren't. Costco isn't doing it to provide low cost health care, they're doing it to make a profit. If Costco is making a profit, even at that drastic of a discount, that means the drug company that makes the drug in question is making a profit too. They certainly aren't giving Costco medications at a loss. It all definitely says something about the unnecessarily hyper-inflated cost of drugs, not that we didn't already know, I just wanted to spell it out once again.

stldem · 1 month ago

Simvastatin 40mg 90 pills $441.37 - U.S
Simvastatin 40mg 100 pills $ 39.00($10.s/h) - Canada online

What the HELL is Merck doing with all of this overhead? You know Canada is still making a profit even though they are selling the drug for approx $49 by mail.

I just can't get over how the drug co's are seriously screwing us, let alone the insurance companies.

stldem · 1 month ago

And, Simvastatin is a generic drug!

emoush · 1 month ago

I'll go ya one better! I get double the dosage of my simvastatin at Costco and split the pills. 3 months for less than $8. Also, you do NOT have to be a Costco member in order to use their pharmacy. If going in person, just tell the keeper-of-the-door that you're going to the pharmacy.

stldem · 1 month ago

Thanks, I didn't know that!

ezpz · 1 month ago

They need to keep it simple and drop all this Care First, Blue Cross nonsense from their name.

Why don't they just call themselves what they are?: B.S.

stldem · 1 month ago

And, get this. If you go online to a certified Canadian Pharmacy, like affordabledrugs, 40mg Simvastatin x 100 tablets costs you $39.00 plus shipping. All you need to do is fax them your prescription. If you do that, at least you don't have the cost going against your accumulated drugs costs and you delay going into the dreaded "gap".

Steven Rhodes · 1 month ago

bcBS groups, like all carriers are swine as far as I can tell. None the less, can't help wonder- does Costco charge everyone that little for simvastatin, or do they have an agreement w/ bcBS?

John Aravosis · 1 month ago

Oh no, normally Costco doesn't even contact my insurance, I'm not sure why they did - BCBS didn't permit online costco sales (because they reportedly had their own little sweetheart deal with Walgreen's or something), so previously I didn't even have them contact my insurance, and it was still $9.99 for 3 months. Costco's generics rock, and you can get them by mail (with a prescription).

Name · 1 month ago

I'm curious what number they knock off your annual allowance? $9.99 or $441.37?
Because obviously using an inflated price for limiting your benefits is yet another way to "cost contain" benefits.

Gregory Lyons · 1 month ago

You're not only getting screwed (the wrong way) by your insurance company, you're being suckered by the allopathic AMA witch doctors.

Chaque a son gout...

serge · 1 month ago

Welcome to the world of Joe-mentum. Getting screwed is a way of life for us downtrodden citizens of the Greatest Country With the Greatest Health Care on the Entire Planet™.

And John..."premia?" Don't be going all Latin fourth-declension-nominative-plural on us.

serge · 1 month ago

Nor accusative plural, damn it!

Paul_A · 1 month ago

Check out the North Carolina BCBS publicity flap.

SCLiberal · 1 month ago

That's GREAT! Thanks for sharing.

MCinNYC · 1 month ago

The fact that anyone see fit to defend these bastards is absurd and says as much about the people doing the defending as it does this story says about the insurance industry. Why people haven’t taken to the streets over this immoral system that is making a few people rich while it kills others financially and literally is beyond me.

larryv · 1 month ago

Knowing what a big fan John is of BC/BS...you will love this...BC/BS of NC raised by an average of 12% via a notice a few weeks back its entire client base. A few days later they stupidly sent out a fancy mailing..which obviously was expensive..with a self address mailer to mail to Sen Hagen asking her to vote against the public option. Well ya think Tarheels can get pissed! welll yessireee they did. Mailing the fancy mailer...scratching out the anti public option and replacing with pro...and one guy attached a brick to run up the cost of postage for BC/BS for the mailing for BC/BS and mailed to Hagen demanding the public option. It is a classic event in the reform debate....up the rates and then turn around and ask the folks you just screwed to screw themselves by voting against the public option I love me some insurance folks...how bout you?

larryv · 1 month ago

And just as an aside...I just got an email from Hagens office indicating she is supporting the PO Senate Dobbs committee version. Reckon BC/BS mailer worked? guess not.

Kansaskitty · 1 month ago

Yep. United Healthcare does the same thing. I didn't discover their sleight of hand until I had to get an emergency 1 mo. refill of simvastatin at Costco and couldn't use my insurance as I had already mailed in a 3 mo. prescription to Medco (who only fills scrips by mail). The insurance wouldn't cover both. Costco only charged me about $5.00 for 1 month without insurance! Same thing on Quinapril blood pressure medicine. Costco charged the same thing as UHC so magnaminously forked over for.

csnet · 1 month ago

Anyone interested can look up Costco online drug pricing in the Pharmacy section of costco.com.

Looks like what the BCBS liars did was quote the retail price of Zocor, the brand name drug for which simvastatin is the generic. As someone asked below, are they counting $9.99 or that inflated retail price against your annual drug coverage limit?

Costco appears to offer great prices on generics, but a few brand name drugs I checked cost more from Costco than from my insurance and more than the prices quoted on Medicare.gov for Medicare recipients in the donut hole.

John Aravosis · 1 month ago

I was just wondering about that myself, what they charged to my limit, about to call and find out.

Asterix · 1 month ago

Medicare Part D seems to also be a bait-and-switch affair. My wife just got a notice that her premium will be going up 50% next year, along with a reduction in benefits.

We really need to euthanize the health insurance business and go to single-payer like most civilized countries.

eddrone · 1 month ago

"Costco only charges $9.99 for 90 pills. So, actually, Blue Cross didn't save me a dime."

Well, dummy! Go to an expensive drug store, then, so Blue Cross can actually save you that money. It's your fault you shop at places like CostCo (love 'em!) instead of Needless Markup. Of course, Blue Cross' deal with Needless Markup might mean you pay $35 instead of $9.99, but hey, it's the principle that counts.

/snark

Ed

hopeful_still · 1 month ago

What do you bet it's the $441 number that gets charged against your $1500 annual limit?

Donica · 1 month ago

I went to the Costco website to check on the pricing of Nexium, and it's three times what I would pay at Rite Aid without insurance. What a frigging scam Nexium is. No matter where you buy it.

Ken M · 1 month ago

Target and WalMart also have $ 4 and $ 10 generics that are MUCH cheaper than other pharmacies.

If you ask the pharmacist (NOT the techs at the register), they can check the price BEFORE running it through your insurance company. Then you can decide which option to use. This avoids any possibility that the insurance company is charging meds that you pay for against your yearly maximum.

shano · 1 month ago

BC/BS did the same thing to me. After I broke a bone in my hand they informed me that my accidental broken bone coverage had been cancelled when I turned 50.

But, they said, look at the great rate we 'negotiated' for you!
ummm, BFD! I still had the pay the whole bill because they cancelled my coverage due to my AGE. And they still increase my rates, up 35% this year. Is this 'insurance'? Or a statistical underwriting scam?

Edward · 1 month ago

It pays to check availability of various doses of the same med. I take a 10mg. simvastatin, available (when I first got it) only at a local discount pharmacy for $10/90 days. Everybody else had only the 5's. I'd have to get two doses at double the cost, of course. Pity the poor, who have no internet access or phone to check, and no transportation to get their drugs.

avahome · 1 month ago

I was originally prescribed Zocor which Simvastatin is the generic for. Thank goodness my doctor switched me to this generic and WalMart makes it affordable at $4/month. I am sure Aetna via mail order prescriptions misses me......... I like paying $12 for three months usage as opposed to $40 with Aetna for same thing.

jimstoic · 1 month ago

Here's a crime that seems to be perpetrated by some combination of drug company, insurance company, and patent law: extended-release medications that are available only in the name-brand version. I have the choice of paying $10 for 90 days for the non-extended-release generic drug, which is covered by my insurance, or $300 for 90 days of the extended-release version, which is not covered. Can it really be healthier to have one's medication level going up and down three or four times a day?

Joseph Bacon · 1 month ago

John, I use Kaiser and they charge me $18.45 for 90 tablets. The plan I have sets my copay at the lower of the actual price or $30. Screw Cross telling you that 90 Simvastatin tablets should go for $441.37 is bullshit. Unless that $431 difference is going to help Billy The Pimp Tauzin pay for his Rolls Royce!

Asterix · 1 month ago

Are we over-medicating?

My LDL levels were way up as well as my BP. My doctor advised a statin as well as an ACE inhibitor. I tried both for about a month and couldn't stand the ringing in my ears. I drastically revised my diet (went to vegetarian) and made a point of getting at least an hour's worth of outdoor exercise, regardless of the weather or daylight.

At my next physical, my doctor looked at my numbers and said "Looks like the meds are doing the trick." My BP was down 30 points and my cholesterol was into the "high normal" range.

He seemed to be surprised that I ditched the pills, but told me to keep doing what I was doing.

I'm not saying it's for everyone, but it's certainly worth asking your physician about.

Naja pallida · 1 month ago

This is the real problem. When you have a for profit system, where it's in physicians best monetary interest to push as many people as possible through the revolving door that is health care, they often never stop to actually treat the source of the problem. They throw a bunch of pills at you and expect you to magically get better. Someone with acid reflux (like the posts below), or cholesterol problems, the very first thing should be to examine and adjust their diet... but of course, that takes time. It's simply faster to shuffle people out the door with a magic prescription instead of actually discussing their problems. Granted, we are a quick fix society, many people don't want to go to the lengths you have to improve their health, but there has to be a middle ground between helping people help themselves, and just writing them a prescription... and I can't imagine a much more logical description of a doctor's job.