What's the cheapest way for me to get a prescription for asthma medicine?
April 6, 2008 5:04 PM
What's the cheapest way for me to get a prescription for asthma medicine? I've had asthma most of my life but it 'disappeared' for a few years. It's back now and I need a refillable prescription for albuterol inhalers.
I don't have health insurance and I live around the Kansas side of Kansas City. I have one inhaler now from a recent trip to the Walgreen's in-store clinic but that prescription isn't refillable. I'm going to have to spend enough on the medicine so I'd like to make the doctor's visit as inexpensive as possible. Bonus points if you can refer me to a specific clinic or doctor.
I don't have health insurance and I live around the Kansas side of Kansas City. I have one inhaler now from a recent trip to the Walgreen's in-store clinic but that prescription isn't refillable. I'm going to have to spend enough on the medicine so I'd like to make the doctor's visit as inexpensive as possible. Bonus points if you can refer me to a specific clinic or doctor.
General info - Pro Air HFA and Ventolin HFA are the generic albuterol inhalers. Proventil HFA is the brand albuterol inhaler. Everything is HFA since last year because of the propellant change.
I do know that Advair has 20.00 off coupons, too. I think I have one of those on the kitchen table. Good news, Advair goes generic in August.
posted by pieoverdone at 5:22 PM on April 6, 2008
I do know that Advair has 20.00 off coupons, too. I think I have one of those on the kitchen table. Good news, Advair goes generic in August.
posted by pieoverdone at 5:22 PM on April 6, 2008
I knew a guy like you in the hospital. His asthma disappeared for a few years, then came back, so he got some doc-in-the-box to prescribe him his favorite albuterol inhaler. Two puffs four times a day wasn't working so he borrowed a neb machine from his sister and started taking more frequent nebulized albuterol treatments. When I saw him in the E/R he had been sitting in his basement for 9 days with the nebulizer on full blast, soaking his lungs in albuterol.
Of course, it wasn't pulmonary asthma - he'd had a heart attack and gone into heart failure, producing a syndrome called 'cardiac asthma' as blood backed up in his lungs due to pump failure. Albuterol, of course, is just the wrong thing for an acute heart attack, and its powerful cardiac stimulant properties had extended the size of this heart attack until it covered his entire anterior wall. He was also in a-fib with rapid ventricular rate, precipitated by the albuterol.
We admitted him, dig-loaded him, and diuresed him, and he spontaneously cardioverted.
Then the weakened anterior wall of his heart ruptured and blood poured out and filled his pericardial sac and he suddenly died.
And that's why you need a prescription for these medicines.
posted by ikkyu2 at 5:54 PM on April 6, 2008
Of course, it wasn't pulmonary asthma - he'd had a heart attack and gone into heart failure, producing a syndrome called 'cardiac asthma' as blood backed up in his lungs due to pump failure. Albuterol, of course, is just the wrong thing for an acute heart attack, and its powerful cardiac stimulant properties had extended the size of this heart attack until it covered his entire anterior wall. He was also in a-fib with rapid ventricular rate, precipitated by the albuterol.
We admitted him, dig-loaded him, and diuresed him, and he spontaneously cardioverted.
Then the weakened anterior wall of his heart ruptured and blood poured out and filled his pericardial sac and he suddenly died.
And that's why you need a prescription for these medicines.
posted by ikkyu2 at 5:54 PM on April 6, 2008
Thanks for the scary story, ikkyu2, but what lesson are you trying to teach me? That I should shuffle myself into the middle class and get good enough health insurance to go to a "real" doctor? I'm not self-diagnosing, here -- I'm just trying to find a doctor I can afford.
posted by richrad at 6:06 PM on April 6, 2008
posted by richrad at 6:06 PM on April 6, 2008
I think what ikkyu2 is trying to say is that it may be worth it to visit your local health clinic, break open the Visa, see a doctor, and get a proper prescription. Short term pain = lifelong gain, etc.
But, shit, I hear you. Although I live in Canada, and therefore can visit the doctor whenever necessary, until recently I had to cover the cost of inhalers myself. Naturally, I went without: Symbicort (the red one with the powder) costs about $130 up here.
Symbicort manages the symptoms of asthma. Although I have a puffer, I only use it as a rescuer. Since I rarely if ever have asthma attacks (thanks to the Symbicort), I hardly ever use the puffer, except before exercising.
posted by KokuRyu at 6:40 PM on April 6, 2008
But, shit, I hear you. Although I live in Canada, and therefore can visit the doctor whenever necessary, until recently I had to cover the cost of inhalers myself. Naturally, I went without: Symbicort (the red one with the powder) costs about $130 up here.
Symbicort manages the symptoms of asthma. Although I have a puffer, I only use it as a rescuer. Since I rarely if ever have asthma attacks (thanks to the Symbicort), I hardly ever use the puffer, except before exercising.
posted by KokuRyu at 6:40 PM on April 6, 2008
Not trying to scare you; just saying that maybe you should approach this as though the doctor had something to add to your case, rather than just being a robot to rubber-stamp your prescription. For all you or I know, there may be something causing your asthma, and there may be a specific treatment to interrupt that causative process. You're treating the necessity of a doctor visit and a prescription as an obstacle to overcome.
The cheapest way to do what you want, of course, is just to find an online pharmacy, maybe one outside the US, to send you the medicine without a prescription. I'm trying to gently suggest that this may not be the best approach if the goal is to improve your health.
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:11 PM on April 6, 2008
The cheapest way to do what you want, of course, is just to find an online pharmacy, maybe one outside the US, to send you the medicine without a prescription. I'm trying to gently suggest that this may not be the best approach if the goal is to improve your health.
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:11 PM on April 6, 2008
Not sure if this will help you, but anecdotally, when I found out the ventolin inhalers were changing at the end of this past year I went to Mexico and bought three of them for $12. I never even had to open my bag coming back across the border, but I don't know how common that would be.
If you have a friend, family member or co-worker who is planning a trip to Mexico, have them pick up some for you and bring them back if you can. It's super-cheap there. You might also look online for Mexico-based pharmacies that will ship to your state as they are so ridiculously cheap there.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 3:53 PM on April 8, 2008
If you have a friend, family member or co-worker who is planning a trip to Mexico, have them pick up some for you and bring them back if you can. It's super-cheap there. You might also look online for Mexico-based pharmacies that will ship to your state as they are so ridiculously cheap there.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 3:53 PM on April 8, 2008
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posted by pieoverdone at 5:19 PM on April 6, 2008