The skyrocketing price of prescription drugs is a major cause of concern, especially for some employees and their families in Alabama, according to My NBC 15, a local news outlet.
Sharing an experience of a local teacher, Linda Grant, the news outlet said the skyrocketing price of a life-saving prescription drug has her wondering where she will find the money to help her daughter, Emily.
For Grant, who is a Baldwin County teacher, it is becoming tough to pay for her daughter’s treatment. She said, “We’re paying $60 a month and I get a three-month prescription, and even had it gone to $100 a month I would have been shocked but not like this.”
Emily’s lifesaving drug will now cost Grant $1500 a month and that too after a local pharmacy’s $500 discount.
Emily, 28, has special needs. She has seizures that she can only control with the brand-name drug. Grant said, “She [Emily] can’t take generic she gets violently ill. She takes other generic prescriptions and she’s fine but with Lamictal, she cannot do it. She gets really ill, so I’m really worried about doing that again.”
Lamictal (lamotrigine) is an anti-epileptic medication, also called an anticonvulsant. It is used alone or with other drugs to treat epileptic seizures in children and adults.
Grant has her insurance through the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA), according to My NBC 15. As of the New Year, some pricing details have changed, especially the ones negotiated by RSA with insurance providers for prescription drugs. Most insurance companies have been encouraging generic drugs as a cost-savings measure.
Chip Brown, Alabama State Representative, said, “Those programs are private sector it may be through the RSA, but they go out and run this through private insurance companies. It is a private sector issue but it is also something we need to take a look at and make sure that the health of the state employees is taken care of.”
Brown said he is in favor of solving the issue and said it may take new legislation. He said, “It may require that … or it may require a phone call. You never know, once you start digging into it and see what we can find out and what solution we might be able to come up with.”
