I want my old insurance company back

Back in December, I was diagnosed with dry eye. My eye doctor put me on Restasis eye drops. Spendy little buggers. And I’m on ‘em for the rest of my life basically … unless I want to go back to having dry eyes and not being able to wear contacts.

Luckily I have health insurance. I was without for 3 months after I switched jobs at the beginning of this year. Well, I wish I could go back to my old insurance company. The eye drops cost over $100 (I thought they were close to $120 … that’s what I was told when I called around to different pharmacies to figure out which one to go to, but it appears that they’re just under $110. Either way … they’re still EXPENSIVE!!!). With my old insurance company, I paid only $30 and my insurance paid $71.40. With my new insurance, I pay $61.97 while insurance pays only $46.97. WTF?!?!

The prescription is supposed to last about a month. There are 32 vials in the box, and you’re supposed to use each vial only once (actually … if I used the drops like that, the box wouldn’t even last a month since I’m supposed to use ‘em twice a day). My eye doctor told me it was okay to use a single vial for 2 days. So I can stretch a single prescription out for 2 months rather than 1.

Thank goodness my paychecks are bigger with this new job. Otherwise these drops would stretch me thin. I don’t think there’s a generic brand. I wish there was. I guess I shouldn’t complain. At least I have insurance. But do these drops really have to be so damn expensive? And why does my new insurance company have to be so damn cheap? That makes me leery to go in for a checkup. I really need to though. I can’t remember the last time I saw a doctor (who wasn’t an eye doctor). But if my insurance company is so cheap with this prescription, how are they gonna be with office visits and lab work and any sort of prescription I might end up having to go on?

Getting that prescription refilled sure did ruin my day. I’m glad I didn’t do it earlier in the day.