As Wal-Mart has taken the lead in lowering prices on generic drugs among brick-and-mortar retailers, the major drug chains have been slow to respond. Walgreens came around first, and now CVS has finally responded — with a $9.99 price point on a 90-day supply of about 400 different medications starting later this month.
Despite the fact that CVS is a day late and dollar short on reducing prices on generics, its announcement got some surprisingly high-profile media coverage from the likes of the Dallas Morning News and the Los Angeles Times. Why, you might wonder? Because of an added gimmick that won’t do much for healthcare consumers — but that has obviously been good for PR.
The gimmick? To “bundle its program with medical care from its in-store clinics.”
Sounds great — till you realize what this “bundle” consists of. You pay $10 per year for a CVS Health Savings Pass, and you get the lower generic drug price and a 10 percent discount at CVS MinuteClinics.
Ten whole percent? Consider our healthcare crisis solved.
Of course, the tens of millions of Americans who are struggling to pay their prescription drug bills each month know that the problem has never been low-cost generics, but drugs that aren’t among the 400 on the lists of Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, Kroger or CVS. The drugs that bust family budgets aren’t on anybody’s list.
And paying a little less for a visit with a nurse in the back corner of a drugstore will do little to ease that pain.
5 responses so far ↓
1 klo // Feb 5, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Find out which pharmacy has the best price, closest to you at http://www.medtipster.com. At medtipster.com, you can search for the low-cost alternatives to your prescriptions. By simply entering prescription drug name, dosage and zip code, you will be provided with a list of $4 drugs and other discount generic pricing information for your prescriptions available at pharmacies in your neighborhood.
2 Harris Teeter joins generic drug discounters | The eDrugSearch Blog // Feb 12, 2009 at 8:51 am
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3 Enlightented One // Mar 3, 2009 at 1:05 pm
why take drugs anyway…if you just eat right, fruits and vegetables, whole grains.. and herbs, (in many cases) your body will cure naturally over time…eating right has no side effects…. taking drugs has side effects….the truth is, in todays modern impatient times, a symptom should not be covered up by drugs (that are engineered to alter your bodies natural behavior)… but rather a symptom should be “listened to”…and dietary and behavior changes should be made to relieve the symptom naturally….
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