Amazon Pharmacy - Hawaii Not Yet Included, but...

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Amazon Pharmacy opens today.  Unfortunately Hawaii is one of five states not included in the initial opening.

Amazon Prime customers get free two-day delivery, although shipping might take up to five days the first time a customer orders, as it takes time to transfer a medication. Customers who don’t have Prime can get free delivery within five days, or they can pay $5.99 to upgrade to two-day delivery.

Amazon Prime members have access to an additional pharmacy perk called the “prescription savings benefit,” which offers a discount of up to 80% on generic medications and up to 40% on brand-name prescriptions.

Even for people who have health coverage, the Prime price might still end up being more affordable than the copay -- Amazon’s Parker said it happens “more frequently than people think” (although it won’t count toward a deductible).
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/17/amazon-p...mbers.html

If you go to their website, you can click Hawaii where you'll be asked if you'd like to join the wait list.  Hopefully if enough people from Hawaii sign up it may encourage Amazon to include us.
https://pharmacy.amazon.com/

[macuu222]

Wouldn't work for us. We would first have to wait five days since we're not prime members...then drive to the Post Office to pick up our prescription parcel which requires waiting in a long socially distant line for about an hour. We can get our prescriptions currently in 24 hours or less with no waiting. Just wear a mask.

[terracore]

I put a couple of drugs into Amazon to see how their prices compared to local using GoodRx, in most cases Amazon was substantially cheaper (for example, 30 amoxicillin pills were $1.20, which is about 600% lower than my insurance co-pay would be). At worst, random drugs I tested were 10-15% cheaper on Amazon. I can see how this is going to be a pharmacy business killer. Maybe CVS will have to start selling tobacco again, or jack up the price on their budget vodka.

The most expensive medicine we buy is for our dog, and Amazon doesn't carry it.

But yeah... unless they are going to deliver it to my door using UPS or FedEx I'm not using their service. Especially now that the Christmas and COVID lines have now intersected at the post office. I checked my mail the last two days and chose to leave my packages there as opposed to waiting in line for 30+ minutes. I only do that once a week now at best, and if I ever need an Rx its because something has happened and I need it fast.