However, our new insurance program coming in 2010 is going to up my co-pay from $50.00 to $175.00. I have adult adhd; I’ve tried several drugs, but most of them either didn’t work, made me extremely angry and raised my blood pressure to levels I’m lucky I didn’t stroke out at.

Now, I simply won’t have access to the drug without selling my house first. I have two young kids; if you’ve ever had kids, you know that they tend to go to the Doctor a lot. Now, we have a $650 per person co-pay before they pay any portion of a Doctor’s office visit.

So, we are screwed. Thank you, Republicans & Blue dogs. You have done such wonderful things for this country, er, I mean, corrupt insurance companies who do nothing but a little bookkeeping at a %50 overhead.

Clair

Rex

Generics are cheaper here than there. But when it comes to brand-name drugs, you can save significantly especially if you’re on two or three medications. You can find Canadian pharmacies online, too. “Don’t go to the fly-by-nights,” Findlay says. “Go to the biggies. They’re not too hard to find.” And don’t worry. Buying drugs from Canada won’t get you in trouble with the law, Findlay says, as long as you’re buying them for yourself and you have a prescription.

If impossible, search the Web. You probably won’t find generics for less online, but you can save 10 to 30 percent on some brand-name medications if you buy them from reputable drugstores that sell over the Internet, Findlay says. “You will cut the brick-and-mortar — the overhead — costs,” he says. Shop around, though. Prices vary.

Note too that diet/lifestyle change can cost more, but think of it as a shift in expense that pays off in the long run. You pay more for better food now so you don’t have to pay more for health care later.

I do want to note that it’s actually cheaper to work on preventing disease than it is to treat it. I’ve seen several studies where the risks of heart disease, diabetes and even cancer was reduced by 50% or more purely by eating healthy and getting good exercise even in families with a history of such diseases. It’s also been studied that exercise and a healthy diet can dramatically reduce the effects of more psychological type diseases such as depression, ADD and ADHD.

Now obviously, there are some things that are outside of the scope of just healthy food and diet (for instance, a serious injury), but I’m a huge proponent of prevention over treatment.