QDIS Blog

I have had some thought on the situation of drugs being sold over the counter and prescription drugs. I couple of years ago I was taking Claritin for my allergies and it worked well. When it went OTC, it ended up costing me more because my insurance co-pay was less than the cost of the drug as an over-the-counter product. In my case, I switched to Flonase (and eventually its generic equivalent) sinc my doctor thought it was better to treat my symptoms locally with a nasal spray rather than systemically with pills. I know of other people who switched from Claritin to either Zyrtec or Allegra since these were covered by their insurance.

The problem of cost is made difficult because in many cases, it is cheaper for an individual with medical insurance which covers drugs to get a prescription drug rather than buying an over-the-counter medicine, even though the overall cost may be lower for the OTC product.

Drug pricing is a complex issue and one that will be only continue to grow in the coming years.

Technorati Tags: drug cost, drug price

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