inexpensive generic drugs at Walmart and Sam's Club pharmacies

Hi everyone,

To those of you who have been following what I've written about starting on Dr. Cantrell's treatment of Lovastatin and interferon alfa-2b (also known as Intron A), I've discovered that Wamart has some amazing low drug costs & so does Sam's Club. For the Lovastatin, which is a generic drug, my monthly dose cost me only eight dollars for my month's supply- less than my normal insurance copay! *Walmart will sell you most generic drugs for just $4.00 a month. Check out their website for a list of all the generic drugs they sell at this low cost- there's a lot on the list.
I had been told that before, depending upon the person's dose, that the interferon would run between $800-1300 a month. I'm still working on my insurance and am hoping and praying that they'll come through for me and cover it. There is a foundation called Committment to Care from Merck pharmaceuticals that provides help to people who's insurance won't cover it, but they're based upon income. Unfortunately, my husband and I make "too much" money to qualify for any help, so I'm on my own to pay for it if my insurance doesn't come through and cover it.
I called Walmart and Sam's Club pharmacies yesterday to check on the cash price if I need to pay for it myself. BTW, you don't need to be a member of Sam's Club in order to use their pharmacy. Walmart's pharmacy charges $181.88 per vial for this type of interferon and Sam's Club charges $178.36 per vial. For my dosage, I need 3 vials per month, so that brings the monthly cost to $545.64 at Walmart and $535.08 at Sam's Club's pharmacy. They have to order it, but said it just takes 1-2 days to come in. Good news! This isn't cheap, but definitely a LOT cheaper than I was thinking I might have to pay.
The maddening thing is that while my insurance has covered my almost-$30,000 a month for Folfiri/Avastin chemo treatments, they're balking at covering the much, much cheaper interferon just because it's not on their "approved treatment" list.
I'm next trying to go for the "money talks" approach. My oncologist is writing in the "request for authorization" that the insurance co. requested that if I weren't on this new Lovastatin/interferon treatment, that I'd be doing something else that would be $30,000 a month. So, I'm hoping that they'll realize how much money they're saving by covering this interferon treatment instead. We'll see what happens!!!
I'll keep you all posted on how I do once the interferon side effects kick in about in another couple of weeks (they're supposed to last just a couple of weeks, then my body is supposed to "get used" to it. It's a much lower dose than most people take who take it to treat hepatitis).

Take care everyone & Merry Christmas!
Lisa