primitive whines about health insurance company

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=317x4232

Oh my.

murielm99  (1000+ posts)      Sun May-29-11 02:54 AM
Original message
 
Stupid, stupid insurance company!

I received a letter today telling me that starting May 1, (which has already passed) I have to get the generic equivalent of my Armour thyroid, or pay the brand co-pay.

My doctor has already written "dispense as written" on her prescription.

I refuse to take the generic equivalent of Armour. It took me the better part of five years to get her to prescribe this for me instead of synthroid, which sucks. It has taken a long time for me to get to anything resembling normal.

I will pay the co-pay.

Isn't Armour fairly inexpensive anyway? How much could they possibly be saving?

Okay.

franksolich has what might, or might not, be a stupid question.

But remember, franksolich isn't a pharmaceutiphiliac.

I thought generic drugs were EXACTLY the same as name-brand drugs, minus the pretty colors and advertising expenses.  I thought they were EXACTLY the same thing.

Are they, or aren't they?

hedgehog  (1000+ posts)      Sun May-29-11 01:36 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Does the insurance company consider the generic equivalent of synthroid to be the generic equivalent of Armour? For a while, some companies tried to get people to think one anti-depressant was the same as any other. From what I've read, each person responds differently, so what works for these three people fairly well and that person really well does nothing for this person over here.

Aha.  I had a premonition it was one of those mood-altering drugs.

murielm99  (1000+ posts)      Sun May-29-11 01:58 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
2. I thought about that after I read the letter.

I have a feeling that they wanted to substitute some crappy form of synthroid, which messes me up. I am only taking Armour.

I understand what you mean about anti-depressants and similar drugs.

I had a student in school who was on some pretty heavy duty psych meds. He was okay most of the time.

Then, there was a period of time when he was a problem in school. He was angry and inattentive. There were some days he slept in class.

After a really bad day, I called his mother. She told me that she was keeping him out of school for a few days. He had slammed his fist through a window and cut his hand badly. She felt that his problems were due to his change in medications. Medicaid paid for his drugs, and they had just ruled that they were only going to pay for the generic. I'm not sure what she did, but the kid did even out eventually.

[formerlurker]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=317x4232

Oh my.

Okay.

franksolich has what might, or might not, be a stupid question.

But remember, franksolich isn't a pharmaceutiphiliac.

I thought generic drugs were EXACTLY the same as name-brand drugs, minus the pretty colors and advertising expenses.  I thought they were EXACTLY the same thing.

Are they, or aren't they?

They aren't.   We have to get name brand of my son's seizure medication.    BC/BS made pharmacy fill it with generic, and after a few days of taking it my son was really off and then had a bad seizure.    His neurologist said they see that often with seizure meds.    BC/BS refused to give us the name brand until it was time for a refill, but Tricare paid for it with no problems.  

I will never accept generic on Rx for my children.  

ETA:  My sister feels the same way about her thyroid medication.   BC/BS won't pay for the name brand so she pays out of pocket. 

[Freeper]

In theory generics are supposed to be the exact same thing as the name brand. However in reality sometimes the generic ones don't work as well for whatever reason. I ran into a problem once when Wal Mart changed who they got the generic version of my blood pressure medicine from. The stuff from the new supplier didn't work as well.