As a drugstore.com customer, I received an email (along with a few hundred thousand other folks) from the company’s CEO last week. The email was their response to the recent announcement by Wal Mart that they were cutting prices to below $4 for a month’s supply of almost three hundred generic drugs.
The net is the folks at drugstore.com claim to provide prices that are already lower than Wal Mart’s for the equivalent supply.
While that is true, it is notable that mail order drugs are always at least 20 points cheaper than the same script bought in a retail store, so the folks at drugstore.com are not exactly giving drugs away. In fact, their margins are likely higher than Wal Mart’s.
That said, drugstore.com has put up a neat price checking service on their website that gives consumers a quick and accurate way to compare prices.
This is one way that consumerism, information, and education can help individuals manage health care costs. But buying drugs, where one already knows exactly what one needs in what quantity and for what purpose is a lot different than shopping around for a neonatal oncologist or angioplasty.
