cost of elmiron

[jaime15]

We have a drug card through my husband's insurance. It only pays a % of the cost. It's ridiculous how much this stuff costs. We only have one income now that I stay home with our son.

My question is how do you get by? I have other meds to.

Jaime [img]confused.gif[/img]

[Shelleynz]

Jaime, I have a similar problem. My IC meds. cost $150/month and we too are struggling on my husband's salary. We have medical insurance but it only covers $200 worth of prescriptions/year. I have tried every avenue possible in this country to get a subsidy and been turned back every time.
Now my only solution is to go back to work. Luckily our eldest child turned 14 a few weeks ago, the legal age required to leave children unattended.
I am having trouble finding a job b/c I've been out of the work force for 14 yrs raising my 3 kids. Employers act as tho. I've been on an unemployment benefit for 14 years! [img]rolleyes.gif[/img] ! and am now unemployable. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[banghead]" /> I don't dare mention IC.
Shelley

[Kelli]

I have insurance through my hubby's work too, it pays pretty good but on some things not as good as I would like. But I am glad I don't have to pay for it all. IF I didn't have my ins I would be paying something like $450 a month in scripts. Now that we are down to one income I have had to pick which meds are the most important and only get those.

[Missie]

My hubby's insurance doesnt go into effect until after the first of the year. Both he and my daughter already have coverage. I've been married since March and his company said he couldnt add me until Nov.6. So h does and then they tell him it doesnt cover me until after jan. 2003. I was soo mad. i think thye are juts trying to put off payment. &lt;sigh&gt;
So I am looking into places to help with the costs of Elmiron. I buy my Detrol out of my pocket but theres no wy we can afford $200.99 a month for elmiron since hes the only one that works and I am a SAHM!

[jaime15]

I looked it up on Alza's helping people with meds. And a family of three (that's us) have to make less than 14,500 a year??!! That was by the poverty guidelines.

We are nowhere close to that even with hubby only one working. But it's so sad that income is that low for a family. Why, it would be hard for one person to survive on that.

But with cost of living and just normal bills, we could use even $10.00 to put towards elmiron. We don't live beyhond our means. Just hospital bills alone we have five or six bills coming in a week. Does it ever end? [img]mad.gif[/img]

jaime

[Susan2]

Hi,
Has anyone noticed how much Oxycotin goes up each month. My insurance pays over 500.00 a month!
Thank God for insurance, without it there is no way in God's green earth I could take the drug! I worry there is gonna come a day when they might try to stop paying for it! I have Blue Cross. Do I have anything to worry about?
Susan

[Christine36]

Susan

I have Blue Cross too.

So far they have never stopped paying for anything. Or never implied that they would. I don't think that they can do that, but maybe I am wrong. They have been my insurance carrier for 5 years.

Besides the Oxycontin, I was getting Lupron for Endometriosis and that was $550.00 monthly. I don't really remember but the DMSO was pretty expensive too. That is not counting the Elmiron and all the other little nickle and dime scripts I take.


I have probably cost them $10,000 dollars maybe more, in scripts alone. I think I should go to the Things I am Grateful For board and give Thanks to Blue Cross/Insurance.

Take Care
<img src="graemlins/grouphug.gif" border="0" alt="[grouphug]" />

[Jen_Cole]

Jamie-you might ask your doctor if he could give you a sample? Then at least you'd have some for free to get you started. I don't know your uro does that (actually I don't even know if mine does that) but I remember the last time I got birth control pills my gyne gave me a month's supply to start on. Good luck!

[jaime15]

Well I went to the uro yesterday for a possible kidney stone. He said no stone but a big flare.

I asked about samples Jen and he said they have never gotten any. I've been on it before for over a year till I became pregnant. After Zane was born I didn't go back on it till June.

I'm just tired of paying for scripts every month. The uro said we definitely made too much but he was going to contact johnson and johnson anyway, for assistance. I guess it wont hurt to try. [img]frown.gif[/img]

[Susan2]

Christine,
My husband says I worry too much about nothing! True!! Are you retired? My husband retired from General Motors. They have never said they wouldn't pay, but at the end of the month it is unbelievable!!!!!! Yes I agree we should post on Most grateful!! Because I am.
Susan

[Christine36]

Hey Susan,

No I am not retired, just disabled. The insurance is my husbands.

[Missie]

I am on my husbands insurance, he has Welmark. The keep putting me off...when we first got married they said i could not be added until nov.
So in Nov. my husband goes and adds me then they say it will be after Jan.1 before it ill go into effect. &lt;sigh&gt;
His insurance sucks! LOL

[blossom]

I am reading about the exhorbitant cost of medication you guys are experiencing. Do you not have "GENERIC" brands of medication??? For example, a vaginal cream under a brand name costs around R250-00 and the generic brand only costs R29-00. They are one and the same cream but just have different brand names. In fact, some medical aids will only reimburse you up the cost of a generic make if one exists for your particular prescription. Amytrypteline (your Elavil, called Tryptenol over here) costs about R250-00 whereas the generic - called Trepeline - only costs R30-00. I checked in the medical dictionary and it describes generic as: "not having a brand name, or of being a drug sold under or identified by its official non-proprietary or chemical name". They are recognised by all medical aids. Please would someone come back to me on this - I am pretty sure I am not telling you guys anything new. Hugs, Blossom.

[ICNDonna]

To Blossom: In the US, when a drug company does all the research and comes up with a new medication, they can get a patent on the drug, which means that a generic for that particular drug can't be marketed for something like 17 years. Elmiron is still a "protected" drug and there is no generic available.

Sometimes it makes it very difficult for us to afford needed drugs, but without that financial incentive, many of the companies would not be able to afford the research, testing, etc., to get the drug approved and on the market.

Donna

[blossom]

Hi Donna, the same laws apply here and there is also a time period before drugs become "unprotected" so there are still many that are madly expensive. But the amytrypteline - thank goodness - as it is my life saver - has a generic, and most of the vaginal preparations do as well Medical insurances have an annual limit on prescription meds so I am extremely lucky about the amytrypteline. Sending warm hugs from across the ocean and here's wishing and hoping that your meds become "unprotected" soon. Blossom.