Pay Less for Birth Control. Ten free, easy tips.
The Good NewsIt's true. Walmart's selling birth control pills for $9 a pack. That's the good news, and for women without insurance, it's great news. For women who have insurance and a $10 co-pay, it's not a big savings, and if you can mail away for 3 packs with that co-pay, I'd say "No thanks" to Walmart. But Walmart's birth control pills are a great deal for women without insurance.
And a huge turn-around from the early days when Walmart refused to carry the morning-after pill, a policy they changed last year. Ah, the power of the almighty profit-dollar. Occasionally, it can be used for good...
The Not Necessarily Bad News
Here's the not so good, but then again, not necessarily bad news. It's only 2 pills - Sprintec and Tri-Sprintec, generic versions of Ortho Cyclen and Ortho Tricyclen. Not necessarily my first choice of pills, but not necessarily bad ones, either. For most women, these are fine - in fact, more than fine - pills.
Anectodally, I seem to get a few more complaints of moodiness on these pills, but it's not a common side effect. In clinical trials, moodiness was more common among users of Ortho Tri Cyclen than in placebo users, but overall occurred in less than 10% of users. If I had no insurance, and had no problems with mood on pills before, generic Ortho-tricyclen or Ortho Cyclen would be my first choice pill, for sure.
If you have acne, Walmart's offering a great pill. Ortho-Cyclen was the first pill to receive FDA-approval for acne treatment, primarily because Ortho was the first company to do the clinical trials that proved what we all knew for years - namely, most birth control pills are good for acne. Now, other pill manufacturers have gotten wise. Both Estrastep and Yaz are also FDA-approved for acne treatment.
The Ugly News
The ugly news about Walmart's birth control pills are the higher generic price tag. Walmart offers all it's other generics for $4. Why the difference for birth control pills? Walmart claims that the reason for the higher price is that they needed it to be profitable.
I'm not buying it.
Birth control pills are no more expensive than other drugs. In fact, some of the drugs being offered in Walmart's $4 generic plan are traditionally very expensive - Lamicil and Diflucan to name just two.
No, I figure that Walmart is banking that young women are more likely than Seniors to swallow the $5 difference in price, and also more likely to spend a pretty penny in their stores. And since there is no lobbying group with the power of the AARP behind young women, why not charge them more?
It's just another example of price discrimination against women. If the dry cleaners and clothing manufacturers can get away with charging women twice the price as they charge men for the same products and services, why shouldn't Walmart do the same thing?
If I seem particularly sensitive about this subject, it's because this week, my husband accidentally took one of my "blouses" in for dry cleaning along with his "shirts", and lo and behold they cleaned the thing for only $1.99 instead of my usual price of $5.99! Lesson learned - send hubby in with your dry cleaning.
Now if it were only that easy for birth control...
_______________________________________________________
UPDATE - Target and Krogers are now selling the same pills for $9.
How to Pay Less for Birth Control - Save up to $500 a year by being smart.
More About Birth Control
21 comments:
Fabulous graphic!
And good news about the OCPs...
If all Walmart generics were $4, I'd agree with you, but I get two generics from Walmart that are more than $20. They have a limited range of the $4 ones. It is great that women without insurance now have this option!
"It's just another example of price discrimination against women."
Always true unfortunately. I buy mens athletic shoes for that reason and mens jeans also. Besides, Wal Mart is evil. They destroy communities, destroy families of Mom and Pop stores, discriminate horribly, support sweatshops and child labor~anything to keep it cheap. I'll shop anywhere but Wal Mart.
I agree with the anti-Walmart sentiment a million percent. BUT... this is a major savings. The lowest generic I could find to Rx prior was 24/month. We have 70% self-pay clients so this is good news.
BTW, you mention these aren't your usual first choice. What are, and why? I find the OCP options overwhelming and appreciate insight.
Dr Smak - It IS good news, isn;t it? Wouldn't it be ironic if Walmart's pricing policy were to lead to lower rates of unplanned pregnancies? My brother, the free-market capitalist, would make me tatoo "I told you so" on my foreheard...
Anonymous
I know, not all generics are part of the $4 pricing group. I just find it incredibly annoying that fertilit drug and birth control have to be a new tier of cost.
To their credit, Walmart does have some hormone replacement meds on their $4 list, so it's not complete female discrimination. But I just don't think birth control pills need a new tier.
MMT0
If you have kids, you'll scream when you see the difference in quality and price between boys clothes and girls clothes. My girls are learning that for many things, they should just head to the boy's department first...
Country midwife -
Agree, this is a fabulous cost savings!
Truth be told, I don't have a first choice pill. I prescribe individually, and try to choose thw pill I think will fit each patient best. For most women, it really doesn't matter, and cost can be the deciding factor. Some of the older generics are just fine, and some of the new pills have advantages for certain patients.
I'm currently loving the NuvaRing - It seems to fit a huge niche for patients who want the ease of not taking a pill but want something lower dose than the patch, (which has more estrogen than most currently marketed pills), or who are having breakthrough bleeding on pills or recurrent ovarian cysts. I see very few side effects with it, although most women don't like the idea of something in their vaginal all the time. I wish they would come out with a lower dose patch...I loved that method till the news about the higher estrogen levels was released. Not that I don't use it in some patients, but it's definitiely not a first line for me.
If you want, I can send you a reprint of a recent article and book chapter I wrote on presribing oral contraceptives. Just drop me an emai with your address.
The cynic in me notes that Clomid is on the list, too, which seems a little self-perpetuating for a retailer of baby products. ;0)
I, too, was shocked at the cheap Diflucan and Lamisil.
The biggest omission, from where I gaze from, is tamoxifen. It's not a super-expensive generic (around $20/month cash price at most pharmacies, comparable to a lot of the drugs on the 400 List), but for women who have survived the physical effects of breast cancer, a little financial break on part of their continuing therapy would be a very concrete expression of solidarity in the fight.
E
I thought sending the hubby in in the first place was the reason you needed birth control. Just my .02
Working as pharmacist I can personally guarantee you that walmart is losing around $7.00 per rx for the birth control pills noted. What people don't understand is that walmart undercutting independent pharmacies, that actually take time and care about their patients, only further erodes the quality of healthcare in this country. How many walmart pharmacists know your name or care if you actually take your meds and improve your life?? Everybody wants to save a few bucks but at what future expense are we doing this?? What if walmart had $4 doctor visits but the doctors didn't give a bull about you or your life would you go just to save that copay?? I can't imagine ever working for a company like this and can't imagine a pharmacist who isn't only looking for a paycheck working there either. You want cheap generics, just be ready for a pharmacist with no knowledge of customer service or anything but counting pills either. Real pharmacists would never work for walmart.
Thank you to the previous pharmacists' post!! I too, an independent pharmacist have been shocked by walmart's 9.00 price on b/c. One of my employees at the pharmacy is even going to walmart to get it b/c she doesn't have insurance and if we give it to her at 9.00 we'll lose 7-8 bucks every month. We'll match most of the 4.00 prescriptions, but some of them on that list I still can't understand how they get profit on, unless there is some kind of major price discrimination going on!?? (lovastatin 10mg,20mg, pravastatin, etc.) At least I know our service "beats the hell out of walmart" as one customer assured me this week; and many others do to...often!
Hatchling :)
Others- Thanks all for your comments. It is so interesting to hear from the pharmacists on this one....
This doesn't even effect me, the $9 bc isn't even offered in my state. If I get perscribed a brand, and the brand has a generic...it will be like $5/20/40 (which is my insurance copay) right?
I live in Pennsylvania...and my b/c at wal-mart is $27. PA is a state that just this past October passed some bull$hit law about not being able to sell b/c below cost. WTF??? I can tell you that because of xmas this year...I don't have my pills this month. I couldn't afford them. It is cheaper to use condoms. I can't even go to family planning and get them cheap because some fat a$$ bureaucrat in office feels its okay for me to get knocked up again and have my 3 kids living on welfare all because I couldn't afford my b/c. It is cheaper for my not to work than pay a sitter, and my husband while he makes a good living...it isn't enough to feed us, keep us warm and enjoy some perks....so i will do it on the governments dime
This is really good news for me, since I don't have insurance, but I can't believe some of the hypocritical elitist hogwash in these comments. If walmart is so evil for making it difficult for some pharmacies to compete then why don't you swing that judgemental pendulum back the other way because how much worse is it to insist that lower-income individuals should spend way more for the same product so the independent pharmacies can be richer. At least Walmart's "evilness" helps the people who need it most.
Also, the economic miseducation of the author of this blog and many of the posters is baffling to me. "price discrimination"? Did your high schools not require you people to take basic econ or are you just willfully ignorant?
Here's a quick lesson: Profits are the #1 priority of businesses. So any business that determines price from something other than the relationship between supply and demand, like for example: misogynism, they will fail because NO ONE WILL PURCHASE THE PRODUCT.
Anonymous -
Supply and demand only works if there is a lower price alternative or if folks can live without the product.
Dry cleaning is a classic example -women's prices are universally fixed higher than mens, and there's nowhere to go where that is not the case. I don't know about you, but I'm not washing my suits...
Or women' clothing - poorly made and twice the price as men's, but what choice do we have other than to shop in the men's department (which I have my girls do as often as possible).
As for BC pills, living without means getting pregnant. Can't see women doing without them.
Three cheers for Wal-Mart. And now they've started selling 3 months of those generics for $10. Wow! For my other meds that aren't generic I use the prescription discount card that I found at www.rxdrugcard.com. Low membership fee. Drug prices posted to check before you join.
Wow... stop bitching! 1) women's cloths cost more BECAUSE WOMEN ARE WILLING TO PAY MORE! 2) Birth control is great - I'll agree. But it is NOT A NECESSITY! condoms are cheap. I know it doesn't feel the same but if you are really worried so much about price discrimination, suck it up. 3) Wal-Mart's service doesn't really matter if you are getting a better deal. Here's my logic: I don't want a blowjob every time I walk into a drug store. I just want my drugs. No sex, just drugs. Again, stop bitching!
Wow! You need to calm down and think before you type. I, like many others, are on birth control to help with irregular bleeding. The alternative is a hysterectomy. I'm only 34 years old. Have some concern for others!
the generic birth control sold at walmart is garbage. i have read several reviews about it and it has several complaints. theese generics are allowed to have 20% less active ingredients then the name brand. i saw it on some other forums. i will not take it cause i will still be paying for birth control even though it is only 9 dollars and end up getting pregnant. walmart just wants you to shop at their stores. just like at their tire servive. how long does it take you to change oil at walmart? 3 hours sometimes. it is a scam! they want you to shop in their store longer. the pharmacy takes too long too and i believe it is their scam also!
Anonymous: condoms are only cheaper than birth control if you don't do it often enough.
I am shocked at the $27 copayment for OCPs. For 27USD, you can buy an entire year's worth of OCP in Australia - and this is not at all subsidised by our public health plan. See here for an example.
Sherri: "I saw it on some other forums" is not an excuse to be spreading untruths to cost people money. Generics are safe and effective. There is no reason to buy a brand if there is a generic available, unless you are demented and require a pill to be the same colour.
As a guy with a fiance who is a full time collage student without a job I really fail to see how this is discrimination against women...
And I agree if you need them often enough condoms are way more expensive.
Post a Comment