Often cheaper to use Canadian pharmacies than Medigap insurance for filling prescriptions.
Norphar. com compared Medigap rates used for Central Pennsylvania with the prescription services from Canadian pharmacies. It shows (using an average from three major companies) that purchasing prescription drugs from Canada is significantly cheaper than using Medigap coverage.
(PRWEB) October 2, 2002
Norphar. com compared the difference between Medigap prescription coverage and using a Canadian Interent pharmacy to fulfill the prescription needs of someone on Medicare.
In this example, we decided to find out how benefitial using a Medigap plan that included prescription drug coverage was compared to buying prescription drugs from a Canadian pharmacy.
We used information from an average cost state and 70 year age group.
We took the difference between the prices of Medigap plans E and H, since they most closely resemble each other among the different Medigap plans aside from drug coverage.
We used three different well known insurance companies to compare the plans.
The chart shows what plans E and H cover:
PLAN E PLAN H
Basic Benefit Basic Benefit
Part A Deductible Part A Deductible
Skilled Nursing Skilled Nursing
Co-insurance Co-insurance
Foreign Travel Foreign Travel
Emergency Emergency
Preventive Care
Basic Drug Benefit
(50% copay with a $2,500
Purchase Limit)
Notice in the chart, Plan E has Preventive Care (additional coverage) and H does not.
We took the price difference between Plans E and H (70 year old male) for each of the three companies and averaged those differences. The average difference between plan E and plan H was $978 per year.
This represents the amount payed for prescription coverage in plan H. The Prescription coverage in plan H consists of a 50% copay up to $1,250 worth of coverage with a $2,500 purchase limit.
So it costs $978 a year to get 50% off of $2,500 worth of prescription drugs under Medigap plan H.
Any purchase exceeding $2,500 for the year costs full price.
Canadian Pharmacies (www. norphar. com) often offer prices 50% or more off prescription medication with no limit on purchases and require no premium.
So this leads to the conclusion that purchasing one of the Medigap Plans A – G (plans with no prescription coverage) and using a Canadian pharmacy to fill prescriptions, will save the consumer $978 per year (the premium payed for prescription coverage under plan H) and put it in his pocket.
This information has been presented simply as a comparison tool and the numbers will vary by many different factors including age, geographic location, type of drugs purchased, physical health etc. In order to get hard numbers for your own use you need to do the homework or hire a professional to help you.
The rates used are for Central Pennsylvania 171xx area as of January 1, 2002.
