Luiceur

Hi all,

We are thinking on moving to Berkeley but I am currently taking antidepressants. I have no idea how things work there since in the UK antidepressants are drugs included in the NHS. Has anyone been in a similar situation? If you have to pay for them in America, I guess they will have a very high price and health insurances may not want to pay for them since it is a pre-condition, am I right?

I would appreciate any help here.
Thanks!

mikelincs

Do you already have a job and visa lined up, if not then your question is a moot point because that is something you would have to worry about only if you did get a visa.

Pulaski's Ways: How to Live and Work in the USA : British Expat Wiki

Luiceur

Yes, I'd have a job. At the moment I do not know the details of salary and visa since it has not been formally offered yet.

thinbrit

ObamaCare eliminated pre-existing conditions in 2014. No more pre-existing conditions means you can’t be denied coverage, charged more, or denied treatment based on health status.

Luiceur

God bless Obama!

Bob

Doesn't mean that insurance has to be cheap though...

And cost of the drugs will all depend on the insurance offered by the employer.

doconthemove

You will have to pay something out of pocket for your meds. How much depends on what it is. Shop around its a free market and don't be surprised if it's 100 bucks a month or more

Pulaski

Some drugs are really really cheap. The NHS largely insulates people from even knowing what the cost of most drugs is. If you go to goodrx.com you can search for the price of prescription medications at different pharmacies in your area, and the difference between the price at different pharmacies can be huge. I was looking at the cost of a common antibiotic recently, and the price of x tablets varied from less than $20 to around $150.

So, even if you have to have ongoing prescriptions, it is still quite possible that you will be find you could save money by buying high deductible insurance, and if you do that you can also use pre-tax money from a Health Savings Account to pay for your prescriptions.

mamasue

The antidepressants I'm taking are a $4 generic at Walmart....there are tons of $4 prescriptions at Walmart and Target....
You can find an online list of $4 generics at Walmart....Of course, you'll need a doctor to prescribe them.

Bob

Wegmans do all antibiotics for free, which is great if you have one around.

Shopping around for pharmacies is a bit of a chore in MA though as you have to designate one with the doctors and they shoot them the prescription direct and you go pick up, so you kind of need to shop around first before getting the prescription done.

petitefrancaise

I don't shop around beforehand -I think my doctors must think I'm a tyrant...

They do send the prescription to a local pharmacy but if it's more than my low co-pay then I ask if there is a cheaper generic available, if there is, then the pharmacist will call and ask the dr to re-send the script with the cheaper generic. If there isn't a generic then I get out my smartphone and look on the sites already mentioned to see if I can get it cheaper elsewhere. If I can, then I phone the dr and ask them to re-send the script there.

With 3 kids, one on really really expensive acne meds I have saved a small fortune this way.

Costco is good too. Especially for the dog stuff like heartworm.

Pulaski

We don't have Wegmans, but I did see one local pharmacy (chain) that does at least some antibiotics for free down here too.

kodokan

I haven't used it yet, but our new health insurance appears to want us to use CVS as a preferred prescription provider. But I imagine that's just if the insurers are likely to be picking up the tab anyway; if it's within the deductible stage, then surely it's my problem if I want to go elsewhere and possibly overpay?

Jerseygirl

Our insurance in CareMark...which is CVS.

doconthemove

you sure all wegmans do that as a rule? hardly acts as an incentive to cut usage!!