Go Generic

Every day I am asked by more than one patient, "Is there a generic medicine I can use, and is it just as good as the name brand?" As inflation eats away at our income and gas prices continue to rise, this question becomes increasingly more important. Many of my patients are on a very fixed income that will not tolerate the expensive new medications that are available. The good news is, generic medications have been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for some time, and are just as effective as the name-brand medications. I know that in the past stories circulated about generics not being as good, but this is no longer the case (if it ever was...)

On their website, the FDA states that generics are manufactured under the same stringent guidelines and must meet the same quality control as name-brand medicines. The shelf life and strength of generics is required to be the same. So, according to the FDA, there is virtually never a reason to prescribe name-brand medicines for most common conditions. I'd like to let you know just what is available for use as generics, but first, I'd like to give you a little back-stage peak at what happens in a doctor's office that might persuade a Doctor to prescribe name brand medicine for you, for no good reason...

Obviously, Doctors are very busy at the office. Constantly more stringent guidelines and decreasing payment from insurance companies and Medicare make it seem like I must see lots of patients to make ends meet. Almost every day, a "Drug-Rep" pushing some new drug will come to the office just asking for 2 minutes to tell me all the advantages of the drug he is pushing. Even though these people are obviously salesmen without any true depth of medical knowledge and no real concern for my patients, it is time-honored tradition (for now) to listen to their small speech and sign for some samples to give to my patients. Now, contrary to the belief of some, the drug companies do not and cannot give Doctors anything more than some free pens or post-it notes. So, after visiting with this 'gentleman' I go back to taking care of my patients and quite possibly, I might see a patient who has the very condition that the new drug will treat.

A busy Doctor, if he does not think about his treatment plan, might give his patient some samples and a prescription for this new drug (I try never to do this!) Probably, this will turn out to be too expensive for the patient to pay for and they will either just not take anything, or have to return to the office for something else. This brings us to one of those Laws of Life: Products are only advertized on television if there is a nice, big fat profit margin! That is why there are never commercials for generic drugs. So, if you heard about it on TV, it is very likely that your co-pay will be sky-high, or that your insurance company just won't cover it at all. In the future, after seeing one of these drug ads on TV, a good question you might ask your Doctor is, "Is there a generic version of the drug I saw on TV last night?" The answer will often be no. Now back to generics.

All our local pharmacies now have lists of very inexpensive medicines that will usually substitute for the pricey ones. On the 4 or 5 dollar list there are approximately 10 different antibiotics to fight bacterial infection, 8 medicines for arthritis pain, 6 for diabetes, 2 for cholesterol, 30 different medicines to lower high blood pressure, 6 for depression, 3 for Menopausal symptoms and scores of others for other conditions. I consider it the duty of a Doctor to consider the relative cost of a medicine before prescribing it for a patient. I am doing the patient no service if the medicine is out of their price range and thus not affordable. Most pharmacies have a list of generics they will give you and you might use it to discuss medicine options with your Doctor. Many patients, I have found, are taking hundreds of dollars worth of medicine that could safely and effortlessly be changed to a regimen costing less than 25 bucks a month. How is that for cutting costs?
PS. Don't forget that daily exercise, eating only healthy food instead of junk, and quitting smoking are all FREE and help to improve most every chronic medical condition. It will be hard for your Doctor to take you seriously if you are questioning the cost of your medicine with a pack of cigarettes peeking out of your pocket!