WHY IS THE PILL SO EXPENSIVE?! - Page 2

Mine is free through PP but I have no kind of health coverage whatsoever and I don't make much money a month

I used to get if free from PP and donate 60 bucks - then I got a better, full time job with benefits, so I can't get it from there anymore. I'm going to pick up my pills today, so I'll see how much I have to pay :/

my insurance SUCKS. you would think a school district would try their best to help teachers not get pregnant huh?? nope!

i went to the pharmacy the other day to pick up my new perscription (i gotta switch each time i switch districts). anyways, when i went to counter, i almost died when they told me it was $75!!!! I was like... for a year? They were said no it says a month!!!!!

I said nevermind. I'll just have a baby and ask them to put it back. I swear! so no more birth controls for me!!!!!! it doesn't matter. it was just to regulate my period anyways.

$5 Co-Pay for any Birth Control.

I don't use the pill, never tried it. I use Nuva Ring aka The Ring and I LOVE it. I hate having to remember additional things to do so it suits me and it's more flexible in the sense you can delay your period for a week.

I've also tried the Patch before and HATED it. I was nauseous and was throwing up everywhere. Unfortunately for me I had started it the day before my flight to England so I puked in Heathrow :shame:

wow i only pay $10 a month for my ortho-lo.

Wow that is pricey-especially with insurance. I used to get my pill for free at the health unit when I didn't have coverage for next to nothing when I was done university. I pay 35 cents now through my benefits.

It has everything to do with recouping costs of drug development. I work at a large pharmaceutical company and that figure mentioned earlier of $800 million to bring a new drug to market is very accurate. If you think about it, investing that kind of money into a drug is a huge risk. Additionally, you have a lot of costs aside from just the costs associated with developing the drug (R&D, production, market research, etc). Also, drug companies have to make their money too. It is a very competitive industry and it wouldn't be worthwhile to work in this industry unless there were some additional monetary incentive.

That's really too bad, considering Diane should be used first and foremost for the treatment of hirutism or severe acne, with birth control as a secondary function. Both of my insurance companies that I'm covered under compensate me for my D35, it's $26 CAD for one pack through my university, and about $26 plus approximately $12 dispensing fee if I go outside of university. It's quite expensive without insurance, but hell, $26 a month is still cheaper than raising a baby.

i pay $60 a month for ortho-tri clyclin lo... it jumped from $25 a month to $60 a month in a 4 month period... i was shocked!

the reason why its so expensive is because of the change in tiers. my bc used to be in a lower tier and that meant my insurance would cover more of its cost.... now it is in the highest tier and my insurance now only covers like $1.00 of the cost.

its ridiculous, but like sara1234 said, its a lot cheaper than having a child. and the thing that sucks is that im on my own health insurance plan and i checked out different carriers, and my bc is in the highest tier for all of them... so im shit out of luck. i can always switch, but this bc has worked and not affected me negatively at all.

i decided to stop by my school's health service and ended up getting orth-tricyclin lo for $8 a month!

fei-fei87..............$8- you are one lucky lady to get it for so cheap! im jealous!

i know you have an obligation to stand by the drug companies seeing as you work for one, but i am never going to agree with the drug companies take on this. its such a transparent copout. once again, they can recoup their costs and make a profit without ridiculous prices. considering the pharmacy isnt the one whose doing the overcharging and lets pretend the pill is the only medication that exists, charging $10-15/month for the pill will still bring in a huge profit for the drug company, provide funding for new projects, will throw in some million dollar mansions and fancy holidays for the fat cats and a few incentives for the people below them. however charging $30/month or more is pure GREED!

I am under no obligation at all to stand by the drug companies. It's not a copout at all. Just like you expect to get payed for doing your job, so do all the employees at drug companies. The only way for those employees to get paid is for the company to make money, so if the drug companies don't make as much money, the employees won't be getting paid as much and will probably leave for better paying jobs. Then, you'll have the problem of not having new drugs being developed because it will no longer be a profitable business. It would be nice to have lower costs, but it just isn't realistic. Cutting profits down to 1/3 or even 1/2 of their original values will lead to huge problems for the industry. I think it's ignorant to make comments like that without truly knowing the industry. And if you really do think that you have a business plan that will allow a company to develop new drugs (not generics) and sell them at 1/3 to 1/2 of the current prices, then you would be a millionaire by now. It just isn't possible the way things are today. The cost of developing new drugs and getting them approved by the FDA is extremely costly and time consuming.

Get this.......I just switched to Regence/Blue Cross Blue Shield and they don't cover Yasmin! That's the ONLY bc I've used that doesn't make me either moody/depressed or fat and bitchy and sick! AND......while we're on the topic of insurance (sort of lol)......blue cross also doesn't cover my ADVAIR inhaler for asthma!!!! WTF?!? I KIND OF need to breathe!!! Does anyone think it would matter or make a difference if I tried calling and talking to someone about it at my insurance company??? I can't pay $70 a month for my advair, you know?

Yes, definitely call them up. Your health insurance should definitely cover Advair and in the weird case that they still say they can't, ask them what asthma medication they do cover. My family has Blue Shield and my dad's Advair is covered, so I don't know what their problem is.

Thanks to the good ol' Canadian Health Care System...I paid $8 every 3mths.

LMAO...This had me laughing.
That's weird I used to have Kaiser and I only pay $5 for a 3-month supply. Are you HMO or PPO?

Is it true it costs $30,000 to have a baby in the US? Just something I heard...man you'd be broke before even giving birth to the little one...

I didn't know the pill was covered under Canadian health Care. I get subsidized birth control through my schools' Health Services centre, and it's still $8 for the cheapest pack and we can bypass the pharmacies dispensing fee.

hahah yay!

At first I paid $7 a month..now with my health care from school, I pay $3..CDN!

*sigh* looooove it.

my nuvaring is free through pp

hey is anyone using CYCLEN??? I've switched to the patch and i have like 4 or 5 packs of cyclen that i dont use anymore, if anybody wants them i can give them to you.

I could not have said this better myself.. drug pricing in the us has everything to do with why drugs cost so much money.. sultry siren had a very good post.. 1 in 10 make it to maket and not too mention the millions looked into other extended indications on the intital NDA.. and then when one does not make it to market the money has to come from somewere.. I also work for a large consumer goods company small pharmaceutical company... we recently had to get rid of R&D for pharma b/c we could not make the money to keep the company afloat and we sell a billion dollar drug but that is not profit.. we are still in the hole for a lot

you could not be more wrong about this.. I am not standing by the drug companies b.c I work for them I am telling you the truth.. most people don't realize that all R&D is privately funded by the companies.. most people think that the government is funding our research for new drug discoveries.. and just so you know generic manufacture pay kickback to pharmacist to use generic drugs... so even generic drugs are in the business to make money.. the reason that they can charge $1 a pill vs $3 is because generic companies just have to show bioavailability to a branded drug.. see when a drug goes off it's patent say in about 10 years a generic company runs testing on their drug and it will pass as long as the bioavailability is 20% above or below the branded drug they are comparing it too. they do not have to recoup the millions and 10 years in research.. a drug that come to market has already been studied for 10 years on average in the us unless the fda has fast tracked it... the initial NDA is filed then 4 clinical studies have to be run.. the first two involve animals and the next two phases are human.. so after all 4 phase studies are run and if the results are still stat sig throughout the company will file the drug NDA with the FDA and still has to be voted on to be approved.. drugs fall out along the way.. maybe they don't break stat sig in the 4 phases maybe they make it all the way and the FDA says no.. ( see Intrinsa/Fem T) but it happens.. we are talking millions and millions of dollars.. so no it is not about greed.. and I for one am glad we have these pharamceutical discoveries.. if I get cancer their are drugs now that can help.. but only b/c companies did this research.

hey G'ville
I pm'ed you