Cost of Synthroid update

[Guest guest]

As correctly stated earlier, co-pay is more a function of the

insurance plan, so it not valid to compare them without considering the

list price. For example, last year my co-pay for a month of Synthroid

was $2. This year it increased to $5. It has always been the " minimum "

co-pay for Synthroid for the short time I have been on it, although I

know it was higher in the past. I pay a lot more for other

prescriptions, and so does my wife.

Since that is the minimum co-pay, it is also what I would pay for a

generic. Thus, there is no financial savings for me at all to switch to

either a generic or to a version with T3. I will need to be convinced on

the basis of efficacy rather than cost. Even if there were a small

difference, it would not be worth the expense of the extra blood tests

needed to adjust the dosage.

Gracia's friend is paying $48 for three months of Synthroid or $16 per

month. That seems incredibly high for a co-pay for Synthroid, but Joan

says hers was even higher, $25.00 per month compared to 11.60 for

Levoxyl. I wonder if these aren't old numbers from before the patent

expiration.(?)

Rather than co-pays, we need to compare retail prices on the web. I'll

first refer you to the Canadian prices I looked up a few months ago,

since these are most readily available and give typical proportions.

Generic Levothyroxine at my dosage was then listed at $1.50 per month or

5 cents per day, U.S. That same supplier wanted 19 cents per day for

Synthroid or $5.70 per month.

The ratio between these is even higher than Joan's co-pay ratio.

However, the total on either drug is not that great and nowhere near the

co-pays listed by Gracia and Joan. My insurance company probably pays at

least double the Canadian bargains, but I still can't beat my co-pay by

shopping in Canada, even for Armour. Double the Canadian price is still

below Gracia's and Joan's co-pays.

Evidently the price of Synthroid has dropped even further since then,

because I could not find any supplier with a difference in price for

Synthroid and the generics. Perhaps more accurately, the price of

Synthroid stayed put and the generics increased a bit until they matched.

The first supplier I looked at today (Pharmacy, Inc) lists both

Synthroid and Levoxyl at $4.95 per month. World Drug Mart lists both

Levoxyl and Synthroid at $4.79 per month. Senior Medications.com offers

them both at $4.80 per month. In-House Pharmacy wanted $6.00 per month

for Eltroxin but went much lower if you bought 1,000 tablets at a time.

The highest I found was Freedom Pharmacy, which wanted $9.66 per month

for a slightly lower dose. That is nearly double the others but still

below the co-pays listed above.

Another complication that I just mentioned above in passing, is that the

proper dosage for Synthroid is typically lower by at least one step from

the generics. That would have tended to close the cost gap even further,

when there was one. Evidently that gap has now vanished.

So, if anyone is actually paying a co-pay of $25 per month for

Synthroid, I suggest either getting a new prescription plan, importing

from Canada, searching for a bargain generic under your plan, or all three.

Chuck

[Guest guest]

The first supplier I looked at today (Pharmacy, Inc) lists both

Synthroid and Levoxyl at $4.95 per month. World Drug Mart lists both

Levoxyl and Synthroid at $4.79 per month.

How do you go about getting a Rx through these people?

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[Guest guest]

K a r e n,

You wrote:

> The first supplier I looked at today (Pharmacy, Inc) lists both

> Synthroid and Levoxyl at $4.95 per month. World Drug Mart lists both

> Levoxyl and Synthroid at $4.79 per month.

>

> How do you go about getting a Rx through these people?

>

The typical Canadian arrangement is for your (U.S. I assume) physician

to first write a three month prescription. Their Canadian employed

physician then writes duplicate or equivalent prescriptions (unlimited

times), which their pharmacy fills. You don't have to go back to your

doc again, unless you want to, but you do need the initial three month

version to be completely legal. Getting started takes a while, but the

flow is usually steady later.

I would not recommend going to fly-by-night outfits that offer to write

prescriptions for you without seeing you or your own doctor's

prescription. You risk having your order seized at the border, a small

but non-zero risk, and you may not have recourse if something gets mixed

up. If they routinely operate outside the law in another country, which

this would be, you will not be likely to be able to enforce any

corrective active. The statistics say most of the drugs such companies

ship are counterfeit or at the wrong dosage anyway.

Chuck