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I have never had problems with customs or anything like that. It never hurts to give them a call.
EVERYONE I know who got really sick, or racked up an expensive care situation, has been unhappily surprised.
Ya know what the Canadians say about us? "America is a great place, unless you get sick, or old."
What do you take for allergies? May I suggest Claritin, which is over the counter. It works the same way most other allergy meds work. Generic preparations are available for it, and they are cheaper and the same thing. And some cholesterol meds are available generically too. Anthem BC/BS forced my physician to change from Crestor to generic Pravachol earlier this year, and the results are better. As for the lung meds, (I assume inhalers), man those are expensive.
Best of luck with your fight.
prescriptions because if you do not take them, you run the risk of
hospitalization. We all know that hospitalization is quite more expensive
than preventative medication, using the prescriptions.
Until we correct that it will only get worse and worse.
My son has no insurance and got a lung infection from the flu this past weekend; he had 3 Rxs, 2 of which were written for generic (prednisone and an antibiotic, both of which were $4 ea.) and an inhaler, which was $32.32, for a total of just $40.32 for 3. That's a lot better than the probable $200 it would have cost him with name brands.
You can get gold plated BC/BS, but it's going to cost you a hell of a lot more than you're paying--say triple.
I hate how the pharms and the medical industry as a whole are ripping people off. Even Medicare has a cap on Rxs as well, as my next door neighbor found out. Luckily, at age 67, I only need high blood pressure and high cholesterol drugs. And if you don't have supplemental coverage (and even if you do), you are going to wind up paying something on your doctor and hospital bills over what Medicare pays.
There are some plans out there that reimburse your local pharmacies less than what they actually pay for the drug.
And I generally use my local pharmacist, not a chain to get my Medicare drugs...$2.35 co-pay for generics and $5.25 co-pay for the Lipitor. I only used WalMart for my son since he did not have insurance.
Who want to scare doctors and pharmacists away from government health care.
before we registered as Domestic Partners, he was paying $640/month with a $3000 deductible... the insurance co-pay on one of his meds was $.39 (the drug was $130 a month) so he got to pay $129.61 every month.
by registering as DPs, I added him to my insurance... it costs me an extra 40 a week, but his meds are only $20.
oh, I should mention that in the last year of having his own insurance... it went up, twice! I think he visited the doctor once that year.
insurance is a scam in this country... there's supposed to be a HUGE pool of money from people who pay into it and don't get sick.
now I'm starting to wonder if, thanks to deregulation of the markets, the insurance companies invested that huge pool of cash in bad mortgages.
that'd explain insurance limits.
http://www.immigration.ca/assessment.asp
Careful. You don't have the coverage for that. Fucking insurance bastards. To quote Lance from Pulp Fiction: "They should be fuckin' killed. No trial, no jury, straight to execution."
Here's another little irony: for one drug, my insurance company charged me $120 copay -- I can buy it cheaper than that online!
i have done this and am rarely ill, only rarely see the doctor, and it's much cheaper...i think the pharma/insurance industries are making us sick.
These are the stories that our Congress needs to hear over and over again before they change the health care for something less than what we need. I am retired and have the Part D program of Medicare and it has a three tiered system where I could end up like you, having to pay for the entire prescription if I go over the allotted amount decided I can spend per year. This is insane. I want universal health care for everyone in this country. To hell with these republicans deciding what is "American" and what is not. We used a form of socialism to pay off the banks and Wall Street, what's the difference in helping them out but what we are asking for is socialism? Enough!
I've now cut the acupuncture down to twice a month, and the herbs got me off blood pressure medication: bringing my health costs down to one $25 a month prescription (boiught out of pocket), and another $200 for acupuncture.
My acupuncturist is also a brilliant diagnostician, and tells me when I should resort to western medicine.
Find a good acupuncturist (they all now are required to know Oriental medicine as well, which treats the whole system, rather than just symptoms, like a lot of western medicine.) You may find yourself in better health, on fewer prescriptions.
In Oregon and California, you do NOT need a Costco membership to use their pharmacy.
Also, tell your Dr you are over your coverage limit - he may have some samples to get you to the first of the year. Or he may be able to prescribe cheaper alternatives for some of your prescriptions.
Sure, the latest steroid-whatever would clear it up for a little while, but then it would return...
Anyway, I finally went to an acupuncurist for the problem, and it did wonders for me... haven't had a serious sinus problem for over seven years (and it was a chronic problem up to that point).
I know this is a little off topic from your insurance aggravation, and I hope you can get that cleared up too.
Insurance companies in this country are a scam.
We need national health insurance in this country, no question about it. The problem is too many people are making a fortune off insurance. If you can't afford it, you just stay sick or die. Welcome to America! This sucks and has to be changed!
The private insurance industry stands between patients and doctors as a middle man. Until and unless the insurance industry is EXPELLED from the health care arena -- an arena into which the insurance industry insinuated itself in the late 60s based solely on their claim that malpractice cases (over 99% of which are voluntarily settled) were driving up their costs. The insurance companies then raised medical malpractice insurance rates sky high (without any real justification for doing so other than the industry's nefarious plans to market their new product -- health insurance) -- that health care providers had to raise their own rates.
And so the saga began.
Then of course, the infamous Edgar Kaiser/Nixon meeting during which they CONSPIRED to deny health care to millions whilst charging them a kings ransom for it and the "managed care" -- that is health care parceled out to the wealthy -- was born (http://www.empiremovies.com/movie/sicko/13681/r...)
Neither of the presidential candidate's plans was acceptable to me: neither plan will ensure anything but that people PURCHASE HEALTH INSURANCE. The discretion to provide health care will still be left to insurance companies.
Health CARE not insurance, is what we need. Single payor, universal health care.
PERIOD. Accept nothing less. And YES I would rather have the "government" regulating and making health care determinations NOT FOR PROFIT than some moneygrubbing greedy insurance motherfucker who is more interested in profits than in making sure that policy holders get the health care they NEED.
The hallmark of a civilized country dedicated to improving the lives of ALL of its citizens is PUBLIC HEALTH CARE. No other "civilized" country forces its citizens to live on the street in poverty just because they got sick.
ENOUGH OF THIS ALREADY.
SPUC
Single Payor Universal Care.
Accept NOTHING LESS
I was on Vytorin 10/40 for over a year, before I read several reports that said new research studies indicated that Vytorin worked no better than generic statin drugs (like Simvastatin) for cholesterol. I checked with my doctor, and he agreed & wrote me up a new prescription for simvastatin, which costs me about $4 for a 90 day supply, vs $70 (which will jump to $100 next year) for Vytorin.
That being said, I took a first responder course, and as an atheist I feel compelled to make clear to the world that I do have a conscience. So, I feel compelled morally to ask, I don't need to call the suicide hotline on you do I?
Do any of you people HAVE A CLUE WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE OUT HERE UNEMPLOYED AND WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE!!!???
DO YOU HAVE A CLUE???!!!
Too bad there's no cheap alt. to Nexium, but that's the only Rx I take now, $100/90-day supply. Ouch, but it beats screaming in fiery acid-drenched pain. And no, Prilosec isn't realistic as I had to take it 3-4x daily vs. one Nexium.
http://shop.mercola.com/Supplements-New_and_Imp...
Being a family who has been lucky to have been on group plans for the past many years, I wasn't as familiar as some on the whole f****d up state our system is really in until having to shop for some coverage for my kids the past couple of months.
It's a big f'n mess! Coverage stinks, the cost is horribly exorbitant, and there's all these sneaky little outs for these companies hidden in the plans. My kids are healthy too. And the whole process of getting individual coverage has been a big huge headache.
First off, the fine print is ridiculous. Really a lot of bait and switch. Plans sound OK on the front end, until you start pouring over the details in the policies. One example -- prescription drug coverage. Most every plan I looked at, or was available, had either super low coverage -- for example they might only cover prescriptions up to $2500 in a calendar year, and/or it might only cover "generic" drugs, etc.
Well... for relatively healthy people who don't need to use their coverage much, that's no big deal. Antibiotics usually aren't all that much. But, I was talking to a sister of mine who is in the medical world, and she told me that -- God forbid -- you come down with something like MS then you could easily be facing monthly prescription charges that exceed $2-3k -- and that's for non-generic, non-formulary drugs. So, you can see how little your policy would help if you had one like this.
The policy we ended up applying for, at least had a stop-loss amount -- or so I thought. Basically it was advertised as the most out of pocket per year was $7500 per child. After that, it would cover 100% of all costs. That gave me some peace of mind knowing that if again -- God forbid -- something awful happened (accident, bad illness, you-name-it) at least I knew that once I hit the $7500 amount, I wouldn't be worrying further. Well -- this was all fine, until I got the actual policy and figured out that this limit didn't apply to prescription drugs -- I'd have to keep paying 50% for those indefinitely. I've filed a complaint with our state insurance commissioner about this blatant misrepresentation, but what's that going to do? Probably nothing other than a "correction" by the insurance company. BFD.
We opted to switch to an HSA-eligible account (with its federal oversight) -- that policy (which I have yet to see) appears to have REAL stop-loss built into it -- that includes RX. That is something you might want to look into John. The total stop-loss is $5000 per person as I recall. Granted, it doesn't start to pay until you cover the $3000 deductible, and then it's 80% up to the stop loss. But at least there are no caps on RX or anything else out of the regular -- I think.
Anyway, I could keep going on, but I'll stop. I'm just sick of this whole broken down system. We've got to do something different here. Too many people don't have any insurance, and many of those that do (like you) -- don't have very good coverage, and won't find/figure out until they really need it.
As far as the scripts, see if you can take generic. Vytorin is a combination of simvastatin and ezetimibe. I know simvastatin is generic, I'm not sure about ezetimibe. If they both are, you could take two generic pills with same benefit at a much reduced cost. What happens is when a brand-name drug's patent runs out and companies can make a generic, many will combine generics to make a new name-brand and jack up the price. Greed, pure and simple.
I hope our national health care situation takes a cure soon.
BTW, the most recent report on infant mortality shows that 28 other countries do better than we do at keeping infants alive in the first year. The top ten are countries with national healthcare. The report attributes this unconscionable outcome in the US primarily to "lack of access to prenatal, neonatal and maternal" care and secondarily to the epidemic of obesity in this country--also an issue tied directly to poor health care.
http://www.neilmed.com/usa/sinusrinse.php
I have diabetes and heart disease, and am 50 years old. I had to split my policies six years ago. I had a policy for me, HIPPA 80/20PPO from the last job, where I am covered with a $5K deductible at $1K/mo from BlueX. I had another policy on the wife and kids 80/20PPO for $600/mo with a $1K deductible. The end result, my insurance was costing me $19,200 plus 20% plus up to $6K in deductible. Call it $25K/yr. at the low end.
So, a year ago I took a picture of myself wearing my "poor" clothes and holding up a sign that said "Will work for healthcare" and sent it out to a few of my regular clients. The end result is that he pays me about 10% above the cost of what his healthcare plan would cost me as an employee, but I have to buy my healthcare at 100% through him as an employee. I still do what I did before as a consultant. Now I have a plan that is about $1.3K/mo for the whole family. It's HMO/PPO with no deductible on the HMO and $500 on the PPO.
Total cost savings, about $10K/yr. Also since I was paying taxes as a 1099 on what he paid me before, but now don't as I only report the income above what I get in healthcare, it lowered my taxable income as well.
When about 30% of your income is going to healthcare, 30% to housing and 20% to food - clothes - auto repairs/maint. - gas - etc. It's hard to "save up" for that new car, or the kids college, or much of anything else. I remember when a holiday meant going somewhere. Now it's about taking the tent into the backyard.
I'm from the UK, living in the US at the moment, and just can't believe how expensive the health care system is here.
I hear people say how great it is, how they wouldn't want to have nationalised medicine, but they have never tried it - you have, now you understand.
US healthcare is great if
1) you have a good company's scheme, and
2) you aren't actually ill.
And god forbid you do get ill, because the costs soon get crazy with deductibles, out-of-pocket and prescription fees.
I just had a check-up scan (I'm not ill, but have a "condition") which costs $1500, plus drs. fees plus a $40/month prescription that doesn't make me feel any different. I requested a generic instead, which is at least cheaper.
The only cost in the UK would have been £7 (about $11) for the prescription, payable since I am a working adult (free for children and pensioners).
Now, I'm not saying the UK healthcare is the greatest in the world, but you can be confident you will get treatment for free. And you always have the choice to buy private health insurance if you can afford it.
American Dream (terms and conditions apply: only for the rich, employed and healthy).
Now that we have momentum, we have to CEASE THE MOMENT.
John and Jacki: anything we can do from our end, let's us know. I know it will be a fight, but this is one fight I am sure MOST Americans are ready to fight.
I feel Obama will not be like Clinton with his "compromise" which really means having the republiCONs continue to have their way. That era of the GOP getting their way even when they are out of power is OVAH!
We have the power - we have to use it to make the changes to our insurance industry in 2009.
In my case, I rarely go to the doctor. I cut my finger in a glass and had to go to emergency. I think it cost me $600 or so for the 2 visits. And I have company insurance!
I can imagine how much more others have to pay that don't have insurance or have to pay insurance on their own like John. This is WRONG.
How did our nation allow this to happen?
Time to OVERHAUL the medical industry big time. The days of $$$$profits$$$ over lives of Americans are OVAH!
I've moved my coverage to Kaiser and have found that as a model it's pretty good, but it comes with a price. I have 3 prescriptions that must be filled 4 times a year (I get them in 3 month chunks) but first I have to hit my minimum out of pocket of $1500. My monthly premium is nearly $600 a month (more than a car payment, more than my utilities for a month, more than some folk's rent) Behind my mortgage it is my second largest monthly cash outlay. Kaiser however takes a very pro-active approach to keeping folks healthy and the copays for visits, xrays, blood tests and all are pretty moderate. If there's a model to be studied for healthcare in the US this is one. Just so long as you don't lose your job.
please sign the petition...
http://www.petitiononline.com/seg5130/petition....
Health care is not an abstract concept.I've heard your outrage before, usually from Republican acquaintances who have a history of skating along blithely as if there's nothing wrong. Here's my rude response:
Welcome to Amerika, was it nice where you were?
[/snark with apology]
See if any of your prescriptions can be changed to a generic drug. For instance, with my BC/BS policy, I copay $5 for generics, $20 for approved non-generic, and $40 for unapproved non-genetic. When my doc found out I was having to copay $40 for Lipitor, she prescribed simvastatin instead. It's an earlier generation statin drug, and if your brand name cholesterol drug is a statin too, perhaps your scrip could be changed.
Try Prevention, too! Don't just feed Big Pharma!
Get an IQAir Filter to give your respiratory system a break.
I guarantee you will feel better and it will reduce your allergies,
which can be a serious drag on your entire health!!!
The IQAir Health Pro Plus is found on the www.costlessair.com site. It's a godsend for me!
I haven't had an asthma or allergy attack in years! No drugs even needed. (Unfortunately, I don't have a pet cat either. But, I used to have so many respiratory problems living in a polluted city well before my cat problems...)
Seriously, PLEASE don't rely on drugs!
Just stop the particulates from getting into you in the first place!!!
P.S. D.C. Air quality is one of the reasons the Enviros fight so hard-- Record asthma rates in urban D.C!!....
Insurance companies only succeed when they keep us from getting medical care. IT DOES NOT WORK.
Now you see what a pathetic dilemma senior citizens, with fixed incomes, are going through. Not all seniors get the max SS benefits, for many it is much lower.
If we purchase coverage for him (IF we can get it with his history of depression), it will cost a minimum of $1200 per month.
With no drug coverage at all.
$340 per month sounds like heaven to us, even if I do understand why you are angry....
BTW, with full coverage last year, we paid an initial $7000 out of pocket BEFORE any bills were paid for him.
....and (you knew this was coming)....my husband works for a managed care organization.....
Good Luck!
Everyone can't take more out of the insurance pool than they put in. It just can't work. You're a fairly young, fairly healthy person. If you're not putting in more than you're getting out who will?
The insurance companies are scum, I agree. There's another problem, though, and that is that health care is just too expensive. Pharmaceuticals are a major scam. Too many drugs are being developed to suppress chronic conditions, thereby guaranteeing a continual revenue stream. We need to develop treatments that cure chronic conditions.
As a country we need to start focusing on how to bring health care costs down. That doesn't necessarily mean rationing - I think we need to start researching on how to provide better care for less cost and start coming up with real cures to chronic problems. Just about every other industry provides a better product for less cost than 40 years ago.
I'm currently living in Japan so you might find our health insurance system here interesting.
My wife and I (early 40's) run our own small business and we have two small children. We're currently enrolled in the Japanese government health insurance though we have the option of switching to a private health insurer. Our total household income was about US $100K last year. Our health insurance bill is now up to about $800 monthly. That may seem a little high but there's a few other things to consider.
Because we run our own business our income has varied pretty wildly over the last five years. Some years we were only making $30K in household income. When that happened, our health insurance payments were more like $60/mo - unlike Joe the Plumber I appreciated paying less while we were trying to get our business established and am willing to pay more now that we're successful. Additionally, there is no "Medicare tax". I looked that up and for the US that is 2.9% of your annual income (with no cap). Factor that in and our monthly payments look more like $560 a month in the US.
No system is perfect and there are definitely drawbacks to the Japanese system. However, I have never heard anyone here complaining that the health insurance system didn't cover them or pulled their coverage. No one except the doctors and hospitals ever talk with the health insurance company. You can go to any doctor - when we were in the US, even with a good PPO we had to look through the damn list of doctors to figure out who was in the plan and who was not. And, when you go to the hospital you get one bill with everything you have to pay put on it, not dozens of bills from every specialist and testing lab that was involved.
The US system is broken and there's a lot of other models to look at and take the best ideas from.
Out of that I had a $1500 deductible and $3000 out of pocket expense until the policy started paying 100%, that started on 12/1/07....... and I had to start all over again on 1/1/2008. Now my employer has one of those HSA where they give me $500/yr and I have Medical savings account "this year" except it goes from 7/1 to 6/30 which is off sync with my annual deductible so I cannot use my pre-tax dollars as the $1500 I put aside for the year is going to be gone before the end of this year AND then I will have to start over again in January......
The kicker...... in the ER where I waited 9 hrs to navigate through their triage system, they tried to hit me up for my $100 copay. Twice while admitted they tried to hit me up for the $723 that I still owed for the deductible.... once in writing and once calling me in my hospital bed the day of discharge. I made a stink and was told that the business office REQUIRES that all discharged patients to be taken to the business office to pay before they are allowed to be discharged...... I refused.
The hospital billed the insurance $52K and as a PPO they paid them $13K...... BUT If I was uninsured, I would be stuck for the whole $52K to pay.
If you have issues you cannot resolve with your health insurance contact your state Department of Insurance as they are the watchdog organizations in every state. In Arizona they really are an advocate for patients regarding issues especially with denied claims and appeal rights.
At the least I want Medicare for All, but I dream of French health care .......
Blue Cross refused to even quote me when my COBRA benefits through my ex's work ran out. They said there was no point because it would be over $1000 a month--in 2004. I had back surgery in '94 and '96, but never ever will again, and fibro...so I am on meds for pain (Soma for cramping and methadone for pain. But they just cost $28 a month at Costco (or $100 at Safeway, figure that out!) TOTAL! Not co-pay LOL And now I'm starting Lyrica, but that will just be $68/month.) Anyway, it's not medical costs that makes them refuse to quote me...it's the fact I take ANY meds at all. (And here in Oregon, no doctors will treat me for anything else because I am on pain meds. They have a clinic that doctors set up for medicare patients to see a nurse practitioner...younger than that and you are SOL.) I stopped the Gynecologist because who wants to know they have cancer if they cannot afford to treat it? We really live in the wild west....no joke...
My best friend (in Illinois) lives without insurance, since her husband is self-employed and they just could not afford $1000 a month. Her daughters are covered through their their dad, her ex. She tried to get in to see their doctor when she was passing out and dizzy--but was told they were not taking "new" patients when they found out she was not insured with her daughters.
We just live with the knowledge that anything like cancer is a death sentence. Everyone knows not to call an ambulance if I fall to the floor, heart attack or car accident.....I'd much rather be dead than homeless! The hospital would own my house before I might regain consciousness. I used to be a deputy city attorney, but because the city "opted" out of social security, I lost my ability to get social security until I am 65...and because I waited over 10 years to claim it (I was not sick...was working duh!) I cannot get the disability version.
There are traps everywhere to deprive us of coverage, and you don't know until you happen to fall into one... We are hoping President Obama helps us--we are not sick! No high blood pressure....no diabetes...no cancer.....yet no insurance either! We'd just love preventative coverage, hospital coverage....cancer treatment if ever necessary. We are middle class normal people who eat carefully, don't smoke...but we live with the same knowledge they did one hundred years ago. Get sick, you die.
Welcome to America, John. Besides adventures in health care, we also have adventures in education, adventures in unemployment, adventures in poverty, adventures in housing, adventures in unemployment, adventures in working conditions/pay...
...it's different when it hits home, though, isn't it?
Order your drugs from Canada. I could name my own favorite pharmacy that I use, but I don't want to spam, so google your own.
I pay a FRACTION of what I would pay from a local US pharmacy for Canadian drugs. All you have to do is send them a fax of your prescription and a driver's license. They can sell you ninety days worth of medicine at a time. The drugs take one to two weeks to get here.
Prices for AMERICAN-MADE drugs from Canada are about 50% of what they cost here. Just let that soak in for a moment. The very same drugs are cheaper AFTER they have crossed the border twice than when they are bought in their country of origin. Is that fucked or what?
Also, because you are buying from Canada, you can get generics for many of the drugs that aren't available in generic form yet, here in the US. That can lower your costs down by 80% in some cases.
One more trick: Have your doctor write your prescription in the highest dose available, and then cut them up at home into your dose. For instance, if you are used to taking fifty mg. pills, but they sell them in 200 mg., have your doctor write your prescription for 1/4 of a 200mg dose daily. For some reason, in both countries, a 200 mg dose of a med cost only slightly more than a 50 mg dose, rather than 4 times as much, which you would expect. You can arbitrage your own meds for a saving.
This is terrific advice for anybody without pharmaceutical insurance. It saves me hundreds each month.
I've really never bought into the idea of insurance. To expect a for-profit company to maintain a relationship with a client that is a money losing proposition, is fundamentally flawed.
He retired in May and we can't afford to keep up the BC plan, even though it is partially paid for.
I am on considerable amounts of Morphine extended release and other meds that cost about $100/month after insurance.
It was recommended that I try a spinal cord stimulator. The hospital told me that I would have to guarantee $20,000.00 ahead of time because the insurance would not pay for the procedure because they do a trial first, to see if it works, and then go ahead with an implant. They will not pay if it doesn't work=no relief.
Needless to say, I am still taking the meds. I have very good days and other days I am in bed.
I am grateful that I can walk and contribute to my family and community and I love that I can come online and visit with all you guys, but........
We are the greatest nation in the world.
My daughter went to McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She had their health insurance. It did not cost us anything(of course the exchange rate was 30-40% at the time) but she got great health care. Bad experience with a dentist though!!!!!!
Canada is a wonderful country. Montreal is beautiful,clean and safe. We had a wonderful time when my daughter went to school up there exploring the city.
And for several years, we have been advocating that universal health care be 'rolled-into' the VA's medical and hospital systemic. Thus, the low-income, seniors, and our Brothers and Sisters-military vets all, would stand in the same line accessing our medical care together. For in doing so, egalitarianism will reign for all. Consequently, military vets, low-income and seniors, would eventually go out behind the barn, negotiate a reasonable political 'compact' and advocate this compact that would incorporate other vital issues important to this newly established class of voters while determined to stand together. Unions could also become part of this 'compact' should their self-interest motivate in our direction.
And there's an old-fashioned adage here in the Sonoran Desert, and it goes something like this, "If you listen to the bald-headed white guys on both sides of the political aisle, you will go hungry!"
And of course, the all-important question to be answered is, "How will all this be paid for?" The easy answer is to let Congress figure it out since they get paid the big bucks to find the solution, and thusly, allocate the dollars necessary in response to the "demand' that is to be visited on each member of Congress. And isn't a re-election opportunity wonderful in order to exercise a tad of political leverage and which has a definitive cutting edge to it? :-)
Jaango
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Dump the Vytorin -- it's likely to do you more harm than good. Sub with generic Zocor, which is far cheaper and proven as effective, if not more effective, than Vytorin. The recent research on Vytorin is a bit scary.
Now that Obama is in office, I feel a sense of hope that things might actually change and America can return to being a country full of success stories of those who found the American Dream rather than those who continue to live the American Nightmare.
Vytorin is Zetia and Zocor. You don't need zetia if you eat healthy, and zocor is available as a much, much cheaper generic (simvastatin). It is no coincidence that Vytorin was released and ad-blitz right before zocor went generic.
PLEASE do not quit taking your cholesterol medicine due to the high cost of Vytorin. Talk to your doctor about switching to generic simvastatin. If you are taking 40 mg or less you can even take a higher dose pill and split it into halves. 30 pills in any strength of simvastatin should be less than $25 cash from a local independent pharmacy (avoid chain stores; they price-gouge cash patients on generics). 15 pills split in halves should be less $15 or $20.
If you let me know what your three allergy meds are (I left my email), I could give you suggestions to talk over with your doctor.
And, yeah, I'm absolutely 100% in favor of universal healthcare.