Getting Screwed for trying to Stop Smoking!

drunkmonkey

I'm annoyed. Feel like i'm getting shafted for wanting to stop smoking.

First off the doctor said I should take champix for 3mts. (Fine, no problem there)

Went to the pharmacy the first month €134.29 for the months supply. (Ok, bit expensive but i'll see how they go)

Needed month 2's supply, I asked could I have the remained of tablets required to finish the course recommended by the doctor. No I was told you can only have 1mt at a time. (Wtf, do they think i'm going to OD on stop smoking tablets). Apparently it's the HSE who made this rule.

So instead of getting what the doctor recommended together and having to pay the €134.29 once i'm being forced to pay the money every month.

To be honest these tablets should be payed for by the Tobacco Companies & The Government as they've both being making a fortune out of me for the last 20 years.
I really want to take one of them to the small claims court for the price of the tablets.

Anyone else feel like there being screwed?

(and before anyone says it, i'm not angry because i'm coming off cigarettes, i'm angry the way i'm being screwed because the HSE who without having ever met me refuse to give me what the doctor told me to get as there making a presumption that i'm a junkie that wants to get high on Champix).

Will I Amnt

That's just the way things are.
If you have a long term illness and need expensive monthly medication,you can't just go and get a years supply in the one go so you only have to pay the €130 or whatever it is now on the drug payment scheme.

Lapin

50 cent at the pharmacy is the only additional cost you should pay.

I thought the same as OP after I started on Champix last November.

I thought I'd have fork out every month too.

I didn't. Just go back to your GP a few days before your first batch runs out and simply ask the receptionist for a repeat prescription. In most cases it takes about 2 or 3 days.

Simply call back, collect your script and off to the chemist with you.

Stick with the Champix, I haven't thought about smoking since November.

drunkmonkey

Lapin wrote: »

50 cent at the pharmacy is the only additional cost you should pay.

I thought the same as OP after I started on Champix last November.

I thought I'd have fork out every month too.

I didn't. Just go back to your GP a few days before your first batch runs out and simply ask the receptionist for a repeat prescription. In most cases it takes about 2 or 3 days.

Simply call back, collect your script and off to the chemist with you.

Stick with the Champix, I haven't thought about smoking since November.

Are you sure about that? The person in the shop insisted I have to pay again and the same next month. Why do I need a repeat prescription I already have one for 3mts supply.

I'm going to take them back to the pharmacy tomorrow anyway as both packs they gave me today have been opened and released badly with dirty tape. Presumably somebody handed them back in that didn't finish them. So not only am I paying top dollar i'm also getting second hand drugs.

I understand with long term illness but this is a fixed term of 3mts if you get me. It's not for life.

Will I Amnt

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I understand with long term illness but this is a fixed term of 3mts if you get me. It's not for life.

Maybe it's the times we are in at the moment??
The drug payment scheme is getting less beneficial by the year.
Getting 3 months supply at once means someone else is paying the full amount of the other 2 months.Could be cutting costs that way too.

ceegee

the drug payment scheme covers all* medication costs over 132 euro per months supply. You are in no way being hard done by, as pointed out already, would you expect other people to be allowed get a years supply at once and just pay 132 euro?

To the poster who received his second months supply without paying extra, this was a f**k up by the pharmacy, whoever dispensed it obvioously didnt notice the previous dispensing that month. Dispensing items like champix twice in one month will flag in the hse's claims software and they will not compensate the pharmacy for the second dispensing.



* - for the sake of this discussion - some things arent covered

Dubhlinner

jesus that's harsh. costs more than a 10 a day habit. they're completely free in northern ireland.

they are very good though

jgbyr

I'm on my second month of champix. €132 per month with the drug payment card (that price also includes other meds that I get).

username123

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I'm annoyed. Feel like i'm getting shafted for wanting to stop smoking.

Listen drunkmonkey, drug payment schemes, chemists, repeat prescriptions etc.... yeah, all very interesting and yeah, this country screws us at every turn.

But try to keep your eye on the ball here. You are shafting yourself every time you plug your gob with a fag and light up. Its genuinely worth ANY money to stop doing that. You spend a fortune over a year on cigs, and an even bigger fortune over a lifetime, not to mention the health risks which are priceless.

Save that energy you are using on being annoyed and direct it into the positive process of quitting fags. Then look back in a few years and see that that piddly amount of money on the Champix was so worth becoming a non smoker*.

* after all that feel free to rant about chemists and drug payment schemes etc