I work at GoodRx. Since I am a full-time employee, my family receives health insurance (which includes pharmacy benefits) at a cost of about $400 per month.
I’ve always just assumed that having health insurance guarantees me a better price at the pharmacy. GoodRx is great, but I have insurance… right?
Last Friday, I woke up with a bad case of conjunctivitis (pink eye)—yuck. I visited a local doctor, and within five minutes was handed a prescription for the generic version of Maxitrol eye drops. I asked the doctor how much it would cost, to which he said, “I’m honestly not sure.”
I jumped in my car and immediately fired up the GoodRx mobile app to find out how much I would have to pay for my medication. GoodRx told me that one major pharmacy chain sold it for $9.99 through their Prescription Savings Club (no fee), while every other nearby pharmacy was between $15 and $35.
Still, I have insurance, so I knew (or thought) my insurance would be the best price. Would it be $5? Maybe even free? I was just happy that I’d be paying lower than $9.99. I drove to the pharmacy to fill my prescription.
Five minutes later, the pharmacist handed me my prescription and said, “That’ll be $11.96, please.” Now, I know it’s just a few bucks, but that’s about 20% higher than what GoodRx listed—and I pay $400 every month for my insurance!
So I said to the pharmacist, “Wait a second, you have a generic discount program advertised all over the store that offers this drug for $9.99 without any insurance, but WITH insurance, it’s $11.96?” His answer: “I guess so. I didn’t know that could happen.”
I asked him to re-run my prescription with the Savings Club discount and 30 seconds later I paid $9.99 cash, or 20% less, without my insurance.
From now on, I’m checking every prescription on GoodRx. Regardless of my insurance.
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