County program can save everyone 20% on meds

[Rob Tucker]

mMy experience on a few occasions has been if I am insured the billing price is higher. If I am uninsured and paying cash the price is lower.


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[Kapohocat]

I was told but not opportunity to check that at Clinical labs - if you are paying cash and they bill you - you save almost half by paying right there at the front desk at time of visit.

Anyone's experience on this?

[Cathi]

Thanks for the post Rob, I had almost forgotten about this!! We have no prescription coverage and WalMart does not do $4.00 on my prescription ($100/month)[]. The local number: 961-8255 to sign up for the discount. Also for about $28/month, you can subscribe to Hawaii Dental Service and have regular cleanings/x-rays, etc, covered. I may not be in the majority, but when you pay as much as we do for health insurance, glasses and prescriptions, it's nice to have something to say yippee about...

[YurtGirl]

Good for Jacobson, I've often considered pulling over when these people are waving all smiley on the side of the road, fully insured and well-fed to ask, "OK, so what are you going to do about our healthcare CRISIS?". And it is a crisis. A monopoly. A blight in our community that many people can't afford to get insured and if they need state assistance for insurance they aren't allowed to make enough money to pay their rent and other bills. It's keeping the rich well and healthy and it's keeping people that are barely making ends meet uninsured, vulnerable and poor.
If you're a business owner it's near impossible to get a decent rate unless you have several employees, let alone if you're a single male. There is a huge gap in our population that is left un-insured with our current system.
This is a small step, but a good one in my opinion. I don't see why a person with a $10 co-pay for a $60 prescription would bicker about this, for those of us uninsured, we have to bite the bullet and pay the $60 a month or worse and there's nothing that is seeming to change the predicament any time soon. My last quote for insurance, a very healthy, 31 year old female, never had kids, not married, no major operations or accidents in the past... $230 a month. $230 a month!!! There's no way I would pay that much in Dr's visits in a year! So it isn't a cost for preventative, it's a cost to pay for "What if the worst happens?" And many people just can't afford that kind of luxury, so the preventative becomes a major cost (though not as major as insurance would be). There's little downsizing of the Dr's charges whether you have insurance or not in my experience. There's only one option for insurance as far as my exhausting search found, HMSA. No others would insure me unless I was employed by a large employer, a student or military.
If anyone has any tips for those of us in the gap, Please share! Thanks for sharing this, Rob. And props again to Jacobson for doing SOMETHING.

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Tucker

From the Tribune Herald....

Apparently this CoH program provides a substantial discount to everyone on prescription drugs not covered by insurance, or if the discount is a better deal than the insurance provides it can be used instead of the insurance.

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/arti...ocal03.txt

It does make me wonder about tiered pricing in medication. Which means that a product might be priced one way for insurance or government accounts (higher) and another way for individuals.

I have had local experiences where, when paying for medical services, I've been given a different price because I was or was not insured at the time.


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