Is there a way to get asthma medication without health insurance?
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When I was diagnosed with asthma while living in the US, my doctor gave me a large box (no joking) of physician samples of the inhaled steroid he thought would work. I obtained medication that way for four months. Basically, it cost $60 to get diagnosed and $45 every two months to go back and get more meds. I really don't know how much it would have cost otherwise, likely far more.
The poster who mentioned Wal-Mart's $4 prescriptions is partly correct. I have seen the list of medications available and unless you're on Albuterol unit doses (for a nebulizer), then there isn't much there for you. Even then, $4 only gets you 20 unit doses, which is 5 days at maximum dose. There are no inhaled steroids or inhalers on that list.
Unfortunately, you will likely have to pay out of pocket for your asthma medication. It's important for you to know that if you are prescribed an inhaled steroid, it might be expensive and also be the backbone of your asthma control. I've found that my Albuterol/Salbutamol doesn't do as much to stop my coughing as my Advair does. Since I started on Advair ($150/month) I've been in control and feeling good.
If you don't have much money and will have to pay out of pocket, please inform your doctor of this. Instead of Advair ($150/month), you could get the same effect with Albuterol and Flovent at lower cost. This doesn't work as well, but much better than either alone.
For price, dry powder inhalers (DPIs) tend to be most expensive. These are: Advair, Spiriva, Pulmicort, Symbicort, Flovent, and there are a few others. They tend to be long-acting bronchodilators and inhaled steroids, also being generally the newest drugs.
Next most expensive are unit doses for nebulizers. These are usually short-acting bronchodilators and you would have to buy a nebulizer with air compressor to use them. Albuterol by unit dose usually runs about $1/dose and you might have to take it 4x a day. That can get pretty expensive fast. Drugs available by nebulizer are: Albuterol, Atrovent, Duoneb, Pulmicort, Xopenex, and there are a few others.
The most inexpensive, although still fairly expensive, are metered dose inhalers (MDIs). This is what is commonly called an inhaler. They usually hold a hundred doses of medication each. These are the most portable and normally don't require additional equipment to use. Drugs available this way are: Albuterol, Atrovent, Combivent (like Duoneb), Flovent and a variety of other inhaled steroids, Advair, Xopenex, and there are many more. This is probably the best and most cost-effective way to get your medication. There are a bunch of different inhaled steroids only available as MDIs too, far more than there are as DPIs.
To make an MDI work more efficiently, a holding chamber might be prescribed. It's a plastic tube that holds the medication so that patient co-ordination is less critical. These cost about $40 and are washable.
If I was without insurance and needed medication, I would either continue to get physician samples like I did when I was in the US, or I would try to get my medications as MDIs for greatest economy and portability.
You still need a doctor's prescription. Medication without insurance is much more expensive. You could try going to a community free clinic or apply for medicaid.
if you have a doctors prescription walmart and sam's club has a $4.00 prescription plan for generic drugs, no insurance require, to view the list go to walmart.com
Yeah it will just cost you a lot more. You can make an appointment with your doctor, and they can still write the prescription even if you are uninsured. You will have to pay for both the office visit and the meds out of pocket. It sucks I know!!
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