If you consistently have health problems are or entering your golden years, you know better than anyone that the cost of pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs is not cheap. Drug companies need a lot of money to pay for lab equipment, scientists, clinical trials, and other testing. They are also certainly not a charity so there has to be some room for profit. None of these things are cheap, and if you visit a doctor and have to get some sort of prescription drug, it can add up quite quickly. Fortunately there are some things that you can do to save a lot of money on your pharmaceuticals.

The first thing you should do is buy generic drugs. These are drugs that are biologically equivalent to name brand drugs, but they cost a ton less. They are exactly the same thing, but since the company making the generic doesn't have to pay for the research, marketing, and approval that have already been done they can be made a lot cheaper. This doesn't work for every prescription drug, but always ask your doctor if one is available.

If it's a long term medication that you have to be on, you should definitely comparison shop for prices. It's not always going to be the same. Check online at places like Costco Pharmacy, Sam's Club Pharmacy, and Drugstore.com to see if you can't get your prescriptions by mail for less money.

You can also ask your doctor if there's what's called a therapeutic substitution, which replaces a prescription drug with a cheaper drug or something natural that you can take which will have the same affect as the prescription drug.

Several drug companies have created prescription drug card programs designed to make their products affordable to those who do not have the ability to do so. GlaxoSmithKline has what's called the "Orange Card." A number of other companies have created what they call "Together Rx Access." Individuals in the Medicare system also have now have a prescription drug assistance program available to them.

Some states have elected to create programs which assist people in paying for their prescription drugs, but this is on a state by state basis, and you will need to do some checking to see if your state has a prescription drug assistance program.

Some people recommend that splitting the dosage to increasing the number of days that your supply lasts, but this is generally a bad idea. When a doctor tells you that you need a certain amount of a drug for a certain period of time, there's a reason for it. One would be engaging in very risky behavior to deviate from the suggested prescription drug regiment that a physician ordered.

Do not simply accept that you have to pay retail price for your prescription drugs; there are a lot of different options available to you if you make use of them.

Learn more about this author, Matthew Paulson.
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