Q. I had a heart transplant and now I can’t afford the medicines because I am in the doughnut hole. If I stop taking the drugs my transplant will most likely fail.
I fall in the cracks because I get too much money for any kind of government help but I can’t make it through the gap on my own. I would like a copy of your guide to saving money by getting prescriptions filled in Canada.
A. After a transplant, patients like you need to take powerful (and pricey) medications that prevent the body from rejecting the transplanted organ. If you are taking a medication such as Prograf (tacrolimus), we can easily understand how difficult it could be to pay the bill on your own. It might cost $500 or more for a month’s worth of medication.
In Canada, the generic form is available for about half that much. Although drugs you buy in Canada are not eligible to get you out of the doughnut hole, it still might make economic sense. You would have to spend over $3,000 out of pocket to get Medicare to pick up the tab on the other side of the hole.
Not all online drugstores that claim to be Canadian are legit. Since you can’t risk taking counterfeit drugs, we are sending you our Guide to Saving Money on Medicine with a discussion on how to evaluate online Canadian pharmacies, tips on finding free medicine and ideas on using generic drugs wisely.
