Tag: out-of-pocket costs

All About the NeedyMeds Drug Discount Card

For over 10 years, the NeedyMeds Drug Discount Card has been helping patients afford their prescriptions. To date, we have saved patients over $280 million on the price of their medications. The free NeedyMeds Drug Discount Card can be used anywhere in the country at over 65,000 participating pharmacies including all of the major chains, to save up to 80% on the cash price of your prescriptions. There are no income, age, or immigration status restrictions. There is no activation or registration needed and no personal information is taken when using our card.   The only rule is that you […]

Open Enrollment for Healthcare Coverage

The Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka Obamacare) Health Insurance Marketplace begins its seventh Open Enrollment period today. American healthcare consumers can sign up on the federal insurance exchange at healthcare.gov or through their state marketplaces. In recent years there has been increased confusion surrounding Open Enrollment due to changes (and attempted changes) made to the ACA under the Trump administration, leading to the U.S. uninsured rate to rise for the first time since 2014 and the largest single-year increase since 2008.   When Obama was president and launched the ACA, Open Enrollment period ran 90 days beginning November 1 and […]

ACA Open Enrollment

The Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka Obamacare) Health Insurance Marketplace begins its sixth Open Enrollment period today. American healthcare consumers can sign up on the federal insurance exchange at healthcare.gov or through their state marketplaces. Last year there was increased confusion surrounding Open Enrollment due to changes (and attempted changes) made to the ACA under the Trump administration, leading to the U.S. uninsured rate to rise for the first time since 2014 and the largest single-year increase since 2008. Open Enrollment period ran 90 days after November 1 until the end of January during the Obama administration but was cut […]

Laws Proposed to Protect Patients from Artificially High Prescription Costs

In a previous blog post, we explored “clawback” and how it affects the prices of prescriptions. In short, Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) negotiate copay prices for insurers that are often higher than the cash price paid by uninsured patients all while instituting a “gag rule” for pharmacists to forbid them from revealing the price discrepancy to patients unless asked directly. A number of states have already passed laws banning clawback and gag rules, though a group of bipartisan U.S. senators have introduced a bill the ban gag clauses for PBM-negotiated contracts nationwide. A recent study by Journal of the American […]

Open Enrollment by the Numbers

Open enrollment for Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka Obamacare) coverage ended across the United States in mid-December, but the last few states ended their open enrollment period at the end of January. We wrote in November about the state of Open Enrollment, and discussed the impacts of confusion surrounding the healthcare law earlier this year. Now that the open enrollment period has ended, we’re able to look at the numbers of people who took advantage and those still left underserved. Even with enrollment period cut in half and other changes enacted by the Trump administration, nearly 11.8 million people signed […]

About Us

Welcome to the NeedyMeds Voice! We look forward to presenting you with timely, provocative pieces on healthcare reform, patient advocacy, medication and healthcare access, and other health-related news. Our goals are to educate, enlighten, and elucidate; together, we will try to make sense of the myriad and ongoing healthcare-related changes in the U.S. today.