The No Insurance Club is the creation of an Arizona physician. The annual individual membership fee is $480 for up to 12 physician visits ($680 covers up to 16 visits per family). Most services during the office visits are free, including immunizations. Generic prescriptions are $4 or less. [link]
Tag Archives: prescriptions
Recycled Drugs: Why Not Use eBay?
An estimated 3 percent of drug prescriptions nationwide go unused — lost, ignored, replaced or no longer needed. In Oregon [alone], that translates to more than 1 million drugs a year. Many of them (especially cancer drugs) are expensive and are often destined to be flushed or tossed away. For any normal product, a thriving secondary market would be underway. But standing between willing buyers and willing sellers is……… you guessed it……. government. Unused-drug-recycling programs are underway in 37 states. But pharmacists hate the idea. (Drug companies probably do, too.) Regulations restrict which drugs can be recycled. Usually, the drugs can't be sold. [link]
Free Drug Samples
Some medical centers are banning them. Here's why:
- "In 2004, drug makers handed out free samples to U.S. doctors with a retail value of nearly $16 billion." [link]
- "But samples spur doctors to prescribe these more expensive brand-name drugs." Without samples, "doctors were three times more likely to prescribe less-expensive generics to uninsured patients." [link]
- Also, "most samples go to insured patients," [study gated, but with abstract] rather than to people who need financial help.
Full story here.