I've occasionally complained here about the rising cost of health care in this country. It's a topic I've read a lot about, and I've come to the conclusion that the dire tales are not exaggerated; that there really are families in this country — and not a small number of them — who have their lives financially destroyed when someone in the family gets ill. This includes a staggering number who have health insurance and think it will cover every contingency. There are also those who die because they can't afford good treatment.
For many, the daunting cost is prescriptions. Some medications are prohibitively expensive. In the last year, I've had five separate friends in the position of not being able to afford the pills that their doctors believe they need. Human beings should not be in that situation.
Here's something that may help someone. I don't think it's been publicized much but some big chain stores have inaugurated generic prescription deals. The Ralphs Market chain, for example, has a long list of medications you can get at their stores at the lovely price of four bucks for a 30 day supply. One of these is a medication that I used to take. It's the one I wrote about in this item that cost me $10 for a 60 day supply because of my insurance but which ran $91.88 if you didn't have insurance. That's quite a savings. Here's a page that tells all about the program.
The Walmart chain has a similar program and so do the Target stores. There may be others.
Some of you probably knew all about these offers but none of my friends who couldn't afford their pills knew about 'em. They just thought a prescription was something you took to your Friendly Neighborhood Pharmacy and the price there was the price. In case there's anyone reading this site who thinks that way, I wanted to mention these new generic programs.