Improving Your Health

Money-Saving Tips For Buying Your Prescription Drugs At The Pharmacy

by Tom Simmmons

If the expensive prices associated with prescription drugs are really pinching your household budget, then it's important to find ways to save money on them. Thankfully, there are a wide variety of different strategies you can take to help make your family's prescriptions fit better into your monthly budget.

In addition to reviewing your prescription requirements with your doctor to ensure you still need to take each drug, use these money-saving tips to save on your medications:

Money-Saving Tip: Always Opt for Generic Drugs When It's Possible

When a prescription drug is first approved by the FDA, the pharmaceutical company that developed it has an exclusive right to produce it and sell it at whatever price they choose for a fixed amount of time. Once this exclusivity period has ended, then the same drug can be produced by other pharmaceutical companies and legally be sold as a generic medication.

Since generics are the same as brand name drugs, but are priced a lot lower due to market competition, you can save a lot of money by opting for them instead of buying the brand name.

Money-Saving Tip: Check the Prescription Costs at Your Local Costco or Other Membership Club

It's not something you often hear about, but membership clubs such as Costco that have pharmacies are legally required to sell prescription drugs to both members and non-members. Even though you need to show your membership card for entry into the store, you can mention instead you are just going to the pharmacy located near the entrance and they will happily let you in to do so. 

Since membership clubs go the extra mile to keep prescription drug costs down for their members, you should always give them a call and price check the medications you take. If they happen to have the lowest cost, then you can absolutely get your medications at their pharmacy whether you choose to become a member or not!

Money-Saving Tip: Consider Ordering Your Prescriptions Online

Finally, it should also be noted that you can often save a lot of money by ordering your prescription drugs from an online pharmacy.

If you have medical insurance, your policy may offer you a significant discount on each prescription if you order it from their preferred online pharmacy. If you don't have medical insurance, you may be able to find the medications for a cheaper price online than in your local area.

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