I always thought the generic prescription meds were suppose to be cheaper???

For several years I have been getting a prescripton for IMITREX. It is 9 pills a month 100mg, and we get charged $30.

I call in my prescription today, and go pick up at 4. The lady tells me it is a generic, and would that be ok. I said "How much is it?", she tells me "$30". So I tell her I don't understand if the regular IMTREX is $30 , why is the generic the same price. Of course she didn't know the answer. She double checked the price of IMITREX and said it is indeed $30. So I told her, that I wanted the IMITREX instead if they were both the same price.

Isn't generic suppose to be cheaper? I just find the whole thing odd.

By Emily7 on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 05:24 pm:

I always thought it was supposed to be cheaper.

By Breann on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 05:49 pm:

It could be that your insurance covers a higher percentage of name brand medications, and a lower percentage of generic. So it just works out that they end up being about the same on that particular med? That is the only think I can think of.

By Tarable on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 06:23 pm:

it may be cheaper for the insurance but they charge you the same copay. What happened recently with one of my medications was that they came out with a generic and it was the same "tier" so the copay was the same and the next time they changed their list the non generic was no longer covered at all. So next time make sure you ask.

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 07:21 pm:

Adding to the posts above, this is a question for your insurance company, not the pharmacy.

By Karen~admin on Friday, December 5, 2008 - 11:14 pm:

Ditto Ginny. We have BCBS - and there are 3 different tiers of drugs. Our generic copay is $15. Brand names are $50, or are simply not covered if they are new drugs, unless you've tried this one or that one for 2 or 3 months each and then have the Dr. petition BCBS to *allow* you to have a specific new brand name drug, which is a $50 copay. Then there are the *in between*, which are $30 - and it's sometimes VERY unclear where which drugs fall.

At any rate, your insurance company should have a formulary or list of what is covered and what is not, and at what rate. Some of my generics cost me the $30 copay, simply because of the specific drug they are. And I take another drug that I can only get 5 days worth at a time, period, so that's a copay each time I refill it.

Also, like the Imitrex, I can only get 9 Maxalt for migraines at a time too - and I pay $50 copay for that.

ALSO - some ins. co. - like BCBS - will only cover some drugs for 6 months of a calendar year, then you have to pay the entire cost. DH is on one of those right now.

Check with your ins. co. - you may even be able to get that info online.

By Jackie on Saturday, December 6, 2008 - 08:07 am:

When I started taking IMITREX years ago,they told me there was no generic at that time. So I had no problem paying the $30 a month for it. If the generic for it is the same price is the IMITREX then I will stick with the brand name one.

Normally every other generic I get for different things for me or the kids is always cheaper.

It is no big deal either way, it was just odd to me.