Can You Fill A Prescription Without Insurance?
If you find yourself uninsured or underinsured (meaning not all your medications are covered) you can always fill your prescriptions at any pharmacy and pay cash or use a discount drug card to help reduce your prescription medication costs.
Although you or your employer pay for insurance through your premiums, you do not need to use your insurance every time you fill your prescriptions. Most insurance these days comes with high deductibles and copayments that require you to pay a large portion of the medication costs. If you have a high deductible, of $5,000 for instance, you are responsible for paying the first $5,000 of your healthcare cost before your insurance kicks in. If you have a $50 copay on generic drugs, you are responsible for paying the first $50 of any generic medication you purchase at your pharmacy.
For example, if your generic medication costs $79.00 you would be responsible for paying your full copay of $50 while your insurance pays the remaining $29. Your copay is a cap. Any charges above your copay is the responsibility of your insurance company. But if your medication costs $39, you pay the full cost. Your insurance pays nothing.
Can you fill a prescription without insurance?
It is important to know that discount drug cards lower the total cash price of your prescriptions sometimes below your insurance copay.
So that $79 cost example, which you paid the first $50 of with your copay, may be reduced to $37 by using a discount drug card. In this example, you saved yourself $13 by not filling your prescription with your insurance card. Your insurance copayment caps your costs however it does not always provide the lowest price to you.
With ever increasing deductibles and copays, it is in your best financial interest to get a discount drug card and compare the total price with your insurance copayment. Some medication is not covered by your insurance at all so you pay the full pharmacy cash price. A discount drug card will reduce the cost that you pay at the pharmacy.
