Discount Rx cards are legit : GoodRx, Blink

[disneysteve]

You may have seen ads for GoodRx (goodrx.com) or Blink (blinkhealth.com). These companies are totally legitimate and can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars on your prescription medications. They negotiate special pricing on medications and deals with pharmacies. If you have no prescription coverage, you definitely want to check them out. Even if you do have coverage, it is still worth seeing if their prices are better than what you are currently paying.

Example: My mother has Medicare and a supplemental plan and is on PAAD for prescriptions. She takes one medication that isn't covered by her plans. Last time she checked, it was going to cost her nearly $400 out of pocket. I have an independent pharmacy across the street from my office who helps us out a lot. I spoke to the pharmacist and he has been ordering it for us and just charging us his cost which is $250. She thought that was great and was happy for the savings.

The other day, she saw an ad for GoodRx and decided to check them out. Turns out their price for the same medicine is $166. So that's $84 less than we've been paying and almost $140 less than the regular cash price she was quoted. Per month! That's a significant savings, and that's just on one medication.

So check out GoodRx and Blink to see if you can save yourself some money.

[TexasHusker]

You may have seen ads for GoodRx (goodrx.com) or Blink (blinkhealth.com). These companies are totally legitimate and can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars on your prescription medications. They negotiate special pricing on medications and deals with pharmacies. If you have no prescription coverage, you definitely want to check them out. Even if you do have coverage, it is still worth seeing if their prices are better than what you are currently paying.

Example: My mother has Medicare and a supplemental plan and is on PAAD for prescriptions. She takes one medication that isn't covered by her plans. Last time she checked, it was going to cost her nearly $400 out of pocket. I have an independent pharmacy across the street from my office who helps us out a lot. I spoke to the pharmacist and he has been ordering it for us and just charging us his cost which is $250. She thought that was great and was happy for the savings.

The other day, she saw an ad for GoodRx and decided to check them out. Turns out their price for the same medicine is $166. So that's $84 less than we've been paying and almost $140 less than the regular cash price she was quoted. Per month! That's a significant savings, and that's just on one medication.

So check out GoodRx and Blink to see if you can save yourself some money.

No question, they work!

We have ordered a lot from Canada over the years without a problem. However, I do know that there are concerns and incidences regarding lack of quality control in this realm. Buyer beware.

[disneysteve]

We have ordered a lot from Canada over the years without a problem. However, I do know that there are concerns and incidences regarding lack of quality control in this realm.

There are a couple of issues with ordering from Canada.
1. The US isn't really enforcing the law but it is, in fact, illegal. They choose not to enforce it as long as you don't bring in more than a 3-month supply at one time. Still, a lot of people just aren't comfortable doing it knowing they are violating a federal law.

2. Online "Canadian" pharmacies may or may not actually be in Canada. It is simple for someone anywhere in the world to make it look like you are ordering from Canada when you are really ordering from China or the Caribbean or who knows where.

[TexasHusker]

There are a couple of issues with ordering from Canada.
1. The US isn't really enforcing the law but it is, in fact, illegal. They choose not to enforce it as long as you don't bring in more than a 3-month supply at one time. Still, a lot of people just aren't comfortable doing it knowing they are violating a federal law.

2. Online "Canadian" pharmacies may or may not actually be in Canada. It is simple for someone anywhere in the world to make it look like you are ordering from Canada when you are really ordering from China or the Caribbean or who knows where.

That is correct. We've had prescriptions arrive from France and other places. None from Tanzania yet.

This is another calculated risk: If you can't afford your prescription here because it's $400 a month, but you can get it through a Canadian supplier for $50 a month, you have to decide if it is worth the risk. Many either have to take the risk or go without.

What I am finding with medical care is this: For folks who don't have a company plan, you either spend all of your discretionary income on absurdly-over-inflated medical care, or "go maverick" and figure out some pretty radical short cuts that you can live with. There is no absolute right or wrong answer.

I do believe that "cash medical care" is a burgeoning cottage industry; I'm trying to figure out how to capitalize on it.

[disneysteve]

We were in Mexico back in December. When I'm out of the country, I always like going into stores and seeing how drugs are sold and how much they cost. I happen to know that my boss takes a medication that is very expensive so I picked him up a supply of it while we were there. It was about 85% cheaper and he said it worked perfectly fine. He was very happy to pay me what it cost me and save himself a bunch of money.

And of course, you don't need a prescription for anything in Mexico.

[disneysteve]

I do believe that "cash medical care" is a burgeoning cottage industry; I'm trying to figure out how to capitalize on it.

There are a number of ways this is already happening.

DPC - Direct Primary Care https://www.dpcare.org/ is a system in which patients pay a monthly fee for all of their primary care services. However, you still need to have traditional insurance to cover anything outside of your PCP's practice like specialist visits, hospitals, surgery, etc.

Free-standing surgical centers that charge flat rates by procedure and only take cash, no insurance. Here's a good article from TIME about this: http://time.com/4649914/why-the-doctor-takes-only-cash/

If you want to get involved as an investor, I'd say you'd need to connect with a group looking to start one of those cash-only centers. I have no idea how you would go about doing that though.