Managing medicine costs

Managing medicine costs

Please do not hesitate to ask us our price on any of your prescribed medications and for ways in which you might reduce the cost of your medication.

Would you ,or someone you care for, like some assistance in managing your medicines?  Do you have to take a lot of medicines?  Do you forget to take your medicine at times?

At Medicare Pharmacy we can prepare a weekly blister pack for you to assist you in managing your medicine.  The blister pack organizes your medicine into individual dosage units which contains everything you need to take at a particular time.

Please ask one of our pharmacists if you would like to find out more about this service.  This service is free of charge to all clients.

Managing the cost of your medicines

Many medicines have reduced a lot in price over the last year.  Please do not hesitate to ask us our price on any of your prescribed medications.

There are also number of ways you can manage the cost of your medicines.

The community drug schemes are state schemes that contribute to the cost of your prescribed medicine.

The state schemes are:

You will have probably heard and read a lot about generic substitution in the media recently.  “Generic medicine” is the term given to identical medicines manufactured by pharmaceutical companies once the original medicine goes off patent.  Generic medicines contain the same active ingredient as the original medicine and are subject to the same licensing process in terms of their safety, quality and efficacy.

In general, as the pharmaceutical companies are not trying to recoup the cost of the research and development of the medicine, generic medicines are less expensive than the original medication.

It is our policy to offer you a generic medicine where this is available and your doctor has written the prescription in such a way that permits us to do this.  This reduces the cost of the medicine to you (if you have to pay for it) and to the exchequer (if the HSE supports or part supports your medicine costs).  Many of the generic medicines we stock are manufactured in Ireland, thus providing the consequential benefits of employment to the economy and the local community.