If medication costs are ruining your budget, try these tips
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Of course, people of all ages use prescription drugs. Nearly half of adult Americans used one or more prescribed medications in the past 30 days. And typically, the older you get, the more prescriptions you need. That can prove financially devastating for older adults on a small budget. Instead of doing without necessities, try these ideas.
Improve your health
“One of the reasons we have so many people who have so much drug expense is they don’t live healthy lifestyles,” said Francis Hoefer, owner of Hoefer Health Insurance in Oswego. “They overeat, don’t get exercise and they eat processed foods and drink too much. They need to exercise, eat real food, move, slim down, keep a positive attitude and get healthy. What drives the cost of prescriptions is lifestyle.”
Ask about programs
Hoefer said that patient assistance programs from manufacturers can help patients better afford costly maintenance drugs; however, this is typically for only brand name scripts.
“There are also discount programs like GoodRx,” Hoefer said. “I just got my prescriptions at Walgreens and one of these programs reduced my costs. Ask the pharmacist to look up discounts.”
The Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) Program website is www.health.ny.gov/health_care/epic. The New York State Department of Health operates the program which assists low-income people 65 and older with their medication costs.
People of any age may use sites like Good Rx (www.goodrx.com), which offers store coupons for medications.
Check your medication.
“People are so over-medicated, it’s ridiculous,” Hoefer said. “Some people have 18 prescriptions. Some people need second opinions. These have side effects. They take drugs to counteract the problems with other drugs. We are over-medicated.”
The National Institutes of Health define “polypharmacy” as taking more than five prescriptions — and that it’s common among older adults. “Unnecessary polypharmacy” refers to taking prescriptions that are no longer necessary. Occasionally talk with the pharmacist and do a full medication reconciliation to avoid medication duplication. Some may be outdated or unnecessary. Taking only needed medication is also helpful for reducing the side effects of taking medication.
Patients can also discuss with the pharmacist and other providers about switching to a different, less expensive brand or generic to see if they’re as effective as the most expensive medication.
Change your plan.
Participating in a health insurance plan that covers your medications better can provide substantial savings. Discuss with your insurance adviser the various plans available with a list of your prescriptions so you can see what’s covered at what rates.
Beginning in 2025, Medicare drug coverage plans began to offer a voluntary option to break up copays into monthly payments, which can spread out the deductible expense over several months so people can better plan their budgets.
“It will potentially help them with monthly expenses if they know they’ll have bigger expenses at the beginning of the year,” said Danielle Webster, assistant director of ambulatory pharmacy at Highland Hospital. “By going with this plan, their copays will be spread out for a year for out-of-pocket costs. They will enroll in the plan with their insurance company and the insurance company will bill them for the copays.”
Of course, this is useful only for maintenance drugs and not short-lived prescriptions for an illness or other short-term issue.
Tweak your budget.
If you can save in some other areas of your budget, that can help you have more money for paying for medication. In addition to enrolling in senior discounts at the pharmacy, JoAnne Spoto Decker, commissioner and executive director of the Office for Aging and Onondaga County Department of Adult and Long-Term Care Services, suggested shopping when stores host discount days on select brands.
“Check senior discounts for saving on mobile phone plans,” she added.
Compare pre-paid plans with monthly contracts. The former may cost less. You could also ditch your landline and cable TV. For the latter, use low-cost subscription streaming services such a Starz ($5 per month) or Netflix ($8.99). Tubi represents one of the free-with-ads streaming services.
The annual cost of operating a car is $11,577, according to the American Automobile Association. If you don’t drive often, “utilize senior discounts on public transportation,” Decker said.
To save while shopping, she advises clipping coupons (apps can make it easy to use electronic coupons), use store reward cards for discount points, shop thrift shops for deals and “check out the discontinued aisle for closeout bargains,” Decker added.