A pharmacist's perspective on the challenges patients face today.

Category: Health

Rima: “The costs for health insurance and prescriptions have been skyrocketing, making it harder and harder for people to afford. The report highlighted that the average annual premium for employer-sponsored family health insurance coverage has increased 22% over the past 5 years and 47% over the past 10 years! And, because health care costs rose faster than wages in 2021, for example, lots of people are having to choose between things like food, shelter and medicine.” The report also highlighted that in 2021 only 49% of firms with 3-9 employees offered health insurance benefits. In addition, many workers were not covered by health care benefits because of the nature of their job. For part-time or temporary work status employees, there typically isn’t a provision for insurance. In fact, among firms that offer healthcare benefits to employees, only 20% of all firms offered them to part-time employees in 2021. Rima: “The good news is that even individuals that don’t have health insurance or are underinsured can use DiRx for their prescriptions. We don’t take health insurance. We work to keep the cost of our generic medicines low so that it’s affordable, even without coverage. In our experience, even people with health insurance may find our direct price cheaper than it is with a copay. Plus, because we don’t take insurance, those insurance or pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) denials that are so common and so frustrating are not a concern. With DiRx, all decisions are between you and your healthcare provider. And of course, the entire DiRx pharmacy team is there for help with every step of your medicine experience.”