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For many years I have been a member of Kaiser Permanente and as the years wear on the premiums and what I pay for service and drugs increases. This year the premium for my wife and I was raised to $826.00 and I opted to switch over to an HSA which has reduced our premium to around $500.00 but conversely raises our co-pays and maximum amount we pay per person on an annual basis.

With this program we pay the first $250.00 of our drugs before we begin to get our discount. Under this program I simply assumed I was getting a decent price on the drugs I’m prescribed. Recently a non-Kaiser physician told me that Kaiser’s prices on drugs were high and that I should shop elswhere and compare. So I did, and lo and behold, I was blown away by the price difference. On the one drug I shopped I paid $21.00 at Kaiser for 30 pills; for the same drug at WalMart I paid $13.64 for 240! Go Figure.

I have never been a fan of Walmart but you MUST check out their prices on prescription drugs. I just hope that I dont encounter any problems with my care providers at Kaiser when I insist that they write out my prescription rather than just email them down to their pharmacy. Unfortunatley I just had my blood pressure medication refilled at Kaiser and they ding me about a $100.00 or so on that med alone. Although I havent priced it at Walmart I am confident that their price would be around $12.00 for the same.

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