Here's a shocker from Marketwatch on how much people are losing by not using generic drugs:
U.S. consumers and employers missed out on $20 billion in savings last year through the purchase of expensive brand-name drugs instead of lower-cost generics, according to a new study.
Wow! I never would have guessed that it was this high. But now more than ever, it pays to use generics over name-brand drugs:
Increased use of generic drugs has emerged as a major strategy to combat rapidly rising health-care costs in the last few years, and more employers are providing financial incentives such as lower co-payments in their prescription-drug plans to persuade workers to make the switch.
Overall, generic drugs cost $60 less on average than their brand-name counterparts.
And there's even more savings on the horizon:
The stakes are high because branded drugs representing nearly $38 billion in sales will lose patent protection between now and 2008, giving consumers and employers many opportunities to choose less-expensive generic alternatives, said Dr. Steve Miller, co-author of the study and vice president for research at Express Scripts.
And there's really no excuse not to save in this way:
Many consumer groups support the use of generic drugs to control costs, as long as doctors can keep prescribing brand drugs in a minority of cases where it may make a difference, said Gary Claxton, vice president and director of the health-care marketplace project for the Kaiser Family Foundation.
"This is kind of the easiest thing out there to do and obviously it's not getting done as much as it could be," Claxton said.
An even better idea for saving on drug costs is to Ask for Free Drugs.
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