Reported by:
John MatareseEveryone knows generic prescriptions are cheaper than name brands. That's a no brainer: Ask for the generic, and save.
Unfortunately, that can lead to complacency, and paying higher prices than you need to.
Why is my Generic Medicine so Expensive?When Tom Baldwin needed to fill a prescription, he went to the drugstore his mom used for decades...Walgreens.
"I used our family pharmacy that we have been using for 20, 30...20 years," Tom told me.
So he was surprised when their "family pharmacy" charged them
$136 for a bottle of Gabapentin, a generic anti seizure medication. The Baldwins assumed since it was a generic, it would cost much less.
Tom's mother Barbara told me "at first I thought it was an error in their computer system."
But it wasn't an error. They were even more stunned when they checked the pharmacy at a nearby
Costco, after a recommendation from a relative. Tom says "I decided to call Costco to get a price and it was $15 and some cents, 90 cents I think, and I couldn't believe it!"
The receipt from their next order of medication shows the difference: the Baldwins were charged
$136.49 at Walgreens, $
15.79 at Costco just a few weeks later.
Tom says "it was the same number of pills, same size, same strength, same medication."
Comparing the PharmaciesSo we did a price check for 120 pills of 300 miligram Gabapentin.
- Two Walgreens quoted us $136, the same Tom paid.
- Drugstore.com, a popular mail order pharmacy, was $71.
- A supermarket pharmacy -- Kroger -- quoted us $56.
- And Costco was just $15.
Next: A fluke? What national surveys found.
