Prescription Drug Insurance

When considering prescription drug insurance, one should know the overall basics of prescription drugs. Most health insurance plans include a restricted prescription drug insurance benefit. This means some drugs are covered and some aren’t. It all depends on which prescription drug insurance you have.

Medicare prescription drug insurance covers a lot of prescription drugs, which is called Part D of Medicare. To join either you have to voluntarily add the Medicare Prescription Drug Insurance Plan to your existing Medicare plan with your insurance company or you need to join a Medicare Health Plan that includes Prescription Drug Insurance. There’s more than one plan to choose offered by different insurance providers. Some cover both brand name and generic drugs, some only generic, and others cover generic and select brand names.

Something to consider when investing in prescription drug insurance is that prescription drugs can become nonprescription drugs through the “Rx-to-OTC” switch. The Food and Drug Administration can change the status of a drug, eliminating the requirement for a prescription. This generally happens when a prescription drug has been available for enough time for scientists to obtain sufficient information to believe that the drug is safe enough to be sold without a prescription. Most often, the company that produces the drug has the most information and requests the switch, though anyone could submit a Citizen’s Petition to the FDA to request a switch.

Prescription drugs require a prescription because they are inherently less safe than nonprescription drugs. Side effects vary from drug to drug and by dosage. Prescription drugs require the expertise of a medical professional to determine from patient to patient which prescription drug and which dosage are appropriate. Sometimes, the same drug can be sold as nonprescription in a low dose and prescription in a high dose.

In the US, prescription drugs must be dispensed by a licensed pharmacist and be purchased from a pharmacy. A medical professional must provide either you or the pharmacy with a prescription before making such a purchase, even when using an online pharmacy. This is where prescription drug insurance comes in to help you make payments.

In contrast, prescription drug insurance is not needed to buy nonprescription drugs. In fact, nonprescription drugs can be bought by anyone, almost anywhere.

Finally to avoid confusion with your prescription drug insurance, one should know the difference between brand name drugs and generic drugs. Every drug has a generic name that’s short for its chemical name. Some examples of generic names for pain relievers are ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and naproxen sodium. A brand name, or trade name, is a special name given to a drug by its manufacturer. In the case of ibuprofen, this would be Advil or Motrin. Any company can sell ibuprofen under the name “ibuprofen,” but only the companies behind Advil and Motrin can use those names. This applies to both prescription and nonprescription drugs.

All these facts should be considered when making a decision regarding prescription drug insurance or health insurance. After all, someone should be knowledgeable about prescription drugs to better understand prescription drug insurance and how it helps.