Walmart offers $4 generic prescription meds

[allisolm]

edit: starting 10/20/2006 the program includes Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Vermont. Walmart press release here (.pdf) Walgreen's will not follow suit and their statement is available here.

edit: Beginning 10/06 all of FL is included and Target is matching the $4 price. Additional drugs have been added to the list.

Starting today (9/22/2006) Walmart pharmacies in the Tampa area (Wal-Mart,
Neighborhood Market and Sam?s Club) are selling a large number of prescription drugs for $4 per 30-day supply. List of medications here. List of stores here. The $4 price is for everyone - non-insured, insured with $10 co-pay, whatever.
Target has said it will match the prices in the Tampa area immediately, but I don't know if it will expand with the Walmart program. Article with the Target information.

The Walmart program is supposed to expand to the rest of FL in January and the rest of the country after that. Details of the program here.

It says over 291 generic medications are covered, but the list is about 140 different medications with several different doses of many.

Hopefully there are some of you out there in the Tampa area who can benefit from this.

Fred's in Memphis is also offering the $4 generics. Link to article.

 

[mezrah]

I heard about this the other day. I'll take $4 over my crappy Aetna $20 copay anyday.

 

[aphex]

woohooo, finally living in the "other" bay area pays off... Screw you $10 and $35 copay!!!

 

[KuJoe]

Just an FYI, meds are $4 a piece after completing a required copay (I think it was $1,000 for families and $2,500 for single persons). They had this on the radio yesterday.

 

[allisolm]

Originally posted by: KuJoe
Just an FYI, meds are $4 a piece after completing a required copay (I think it was $1,000 for families and $2,500 for single persons). They had this on the radio yesterday.

They were wrong. There is no copay. There is no deductible to meet. There is only a price of $4. $4 if you have insurance, $4 if you don't.

 

[KuJoe]

When somebody goes and gets their meds for $4 let us know, until then I'm going by what the Walmart pharmacists said.

 

[amheck]

Isn't there an income requirement for this?

 

[allisolm]

Originally posted by: amheck
Isn't there an income requirement for this?

Not the way I read it. If you are poor and have no insurance, you can bring in your prescription and pay $4. If you are rich and have no insurance, you can bring in your prescription and pay $4. If you have insurance and are rich or poor, they will accept it, but if your copay is more than $4, you can just pay $4 cash.

 

[allisolm]

Fred's To Pilot $4 Generic Drug Program In Memphis Area
Monday September 25th, 2006 / 15h36

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Fred's Inc. (FRED) is lowering prices on about 300 generic drugs to $4 a prescription in select Memphis area locations, effective immediately.
The Memphis operator of discount general merchandise stores will offer up to a 30-day supply of certain medicines at this price.
The program will be available at pharmacies in Memphis, Bartlett, and Millington, Tenn.
Fred's will evaluate the success of the program and the possibility of extending it to additional markets.
On Friday, Target Corp. (TGT) began lowering prices on generic drugs, in a move consistent with its long-standing practice to be price-competitive with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), which cut prices of generic drugs to $4 at pharmacies in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area.

 

[tealk]

Drugs...Drugs......Drugs.......So you telling me I can't be an Advil drug dealer on the streets anymore?

 

[allisolm]

As of 10/06, all of FL is included and Target is matching the $4 price. The rest of the nation is supposed to come into this program before the end of the year. The list of drugs covered for the $4 price has been expanded and is available here.

Despite anything Kujoe says, the prescriptions are $4 for a 30 day supply for everyone. There are no deductibles to meet and no copays to worry about.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: allisolm
As of 10/06, all of FL is included and Target is matching the $4 price. The rest of the nation is supposed to come into this program before the end of the year. The list of drugs covered for the $4 price has been expanded and is available here.

Despite anything Kujoe says, the prescriptions are $4 for a 30 day supply for everyone. There are no deductibles to meet and no copays to worry about.

Hope this breaks the stranglehold of the Drug Companies over ordinary Americans.

 

[desteffy]

wow.

this is just awesome.

 

[BigRigDriver]

Originally posted by: allisolm
As of 10/06, all of FL is included and Target is matching the $4 price. The rest of the nation is supposed to come into this program before the end of the year. The list of drugs covered for the $4 price has been expanded and is available here.

Despite anything Kujoe says, the prescriptions are $4 for a 30 day supply for everyone. There are no deductibles to meet and no copays to worry about.

Lots of hormonial drugs but no viagra

IHMO kudos to WalyWorld & the gang thats gonna follow. I say its about time :thumbsup:

 

[allisolm]

Edited OP to include the 15 states covered as of 10/20/2006.
Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Vermont

Drug list here. (.pdf)

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: allisolm
Edited OP to include the 15 states covered as of 10/20/2006.
Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Vermont

Drug list here. (.pdf)

This is great, but why not MS. It's the poorest state in the union, but no help here?

 

[Trevelyan]

Awesome! This is capitalism at its best!

 

[waggy]

nice. to bad i only have one that is covered.

hopefully they expand teh list.

 

[JackBurton]

This is great!

 

[ninjazed]

Wal-Mart is an Evil Empire that is destroying this country. They destroy the manufacturing base of this country by obtaining goods from Third World nations that provide no worker rights, they cripple the rights of their own work force by slashing benefits and hiring primarily part-time employment which keeps their benefit responsibility even lower, they have destroyed small business and industry.......and now I'm supposed to say "Yay!" because they provide a loss leader on select drugs? Phoooey!

 

[araczynski]

Originally posted by: ninjazed
Wal-Mart is an Evil Empire that is destroying this country. They destroy the manufacturing base of this country by obtaining goods from Third World nations that provide no worker rights, they cripple the rights of their own work force by slashing benefits and hiring primarily part-time employment which keeps their benefit responsibility even lower, they have destroyed small business and industry.......and now I'm supposed to say "Yay!" because they provide a loss leader on select drugs? Phoooey!

Part time employees need to get an education, there's plenty of community colleges etc that don't cost an arm and a leg to get in the door. I don't feel sorry for anyone with a high school diploma and no education getting paid minimum wage.

as for the manufacturing base, maybe the manufacturing base needs to get rid of the F'ing unions. That'd be a great start for lowering the costs of manufacturing anything in this country.

the only thing destroying this country is the politicians, that are more then happy to sell out everything and everyone just to get relected, all the while preaching how to be good christians and how every part of the world (that has oil) needs to be saved from itself.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: ninjazed
Wal-Mart is an Evil Empire that is destroying this country. They destroy the manufacturing base of this country by obtaining goods from Third World nations that provide no worker rights, they cripple the rights of their own work force by slashing benefits and hiring primarily part-time employment which keeps their benefit responsibility even lower, they have destroyed small business and industry.......and now I'm supposed to say "Yay!" because they provide a loss leader on select drugs? Phoooey!

Wow...I can't believe it took 15+ posts before someone started the standard trance like rant anytime Walmart is mentioned.

 

[TekDemon]

About friggin' time that generics were reasonably priced.
In reality though this isn't going to apply to any of the generics that just went generic since the company that broke the patent stranglehold gets 1 year of non-compete time. So even if it's really cheap it's not gonna be $4.

BTW, anybody notice how cheap older generics are at Sam's Club and Costco's? Like the OTC generic stuff. I bought something like a 1.5 year supply of Benadryl for $3.99 (500 pills I think). So in theory if they picked the right generics they could even be cutting a slight profit on some of them lol.

Too bad if you want any new non-generic drugs it's still going to cost you a bazillion dollars. And I see morons insist on taking Nexium instead of Prilosec (seriously, one time in a healthcare related class at college some idiot chick like basically got up and insisted that Nexium is totally different when I brought it up-and when I was at my own insurance benefit meeting some nurse actually asked how Nexium would be covered as it wasn't in the first tier or whatever) even though the only reason Nexium was even approved was because it narrowly beat Prilosec on ONE test out of 3...AT TWICE THE DOSE!!! Are you kidding me? (Prilosec actually performed better in the other 2 tests, lol)

Ok enough ranting about Nexium, but seriously that drug is a frickin' joke because it got it's ass kicked by the drug it's supposed to replace when used to treat heartburn. It got approved by beating Prilosec for some other treatment-and only very narrowly-and even then only because for this other treatment they insisted that the "correct dose" was twice as much Nexium as Prilosec. lol.

But then again that's why they got sued: http://heartburn.about.com/b/a/142321.htm lol

 

[Gilby]

Originally posted by: araczynski
as for the manufacturing base, maybe the manufacturing base needs to get rid of the F'ing unions. That'd be a great start for lowering the costs of manufacturing anything in this country.

Because, you know, decent wages and workplace safety were such a huge mistake.

 

[ToxicMussels]

I caught this on our local news last night. Here, in AZ, they said the local Wal-Mart's only carry about 25% of the drugs on that list. So you better call ahead to check for availability before you cancel or transfer your precriptions from somewhere else!

Just an FYI.