While most of us budget for large medical expenses like surgery and hospitalization, smaller expenses are often overlooked. What we don’t take into considerations is the significant amount of money spent every month on medications, especially for chronic ailments like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In this article, we will discuss how you can save on your next pharmacy bills.
Get a health insurance plan
Eight percent of India’s population is not covered by health insurance. If you don’t have a health insurance plan, a medical emergency can turn into a financial emergency. A health insurance plan can help you right from your dental check-ups to critical illness treatments.
Buy your medicines online
Another tip that can help reduce medical costs is to buy medicines online with discount. Most of these offer a 10-20% discount on medicine prices as compared to brick and mortar medical stores. Moreover, you also get the convenience of home delivery on your medicines. Always a win-win situation.
Don’t just go by the brand
While brand name medications have a more or less uniform price scheme, generic medicines are often provided at discount rates by different pharmacies. These are medicines with an identical chemical position which are manufactured by different pharma companies at fewer prices but have the same outcome as the branded variant. Confirm with your doctor if you can take a generic and cost-effective variant of the medicine.
Read the fine print
Healthcare providers could accidentally overcharge you- yes it can happen way more often then we think! So, always inspect the bills with their detailed item-by-item breakups if necessary, to avoid the expenditure of services which you have not used.
Prevention is better than cure
Opting for preventive measures is important to reduce the money you have to spend on medical care. For instance, most health insurance policies cover certain checkups as well as certain vaccinations. The former can spot a brewing health condition at an early stage, which allows you to take care of it before it snowballs into something more serious that requires more treatment, and high expenditure. Vaccines, on the other hand, can prevent great conditions from striking you in the first place.
Improve your lifestyle
A variety of health conditions are caused by the poor lifestyle we lead, increasingly so because of the fast-paced and stressful nature of today’s world. Some wise folks said right- health is wealth! A few simple changes in your lifestyle- a healthy balanced diet, at least 30 min regular exercise, giving up addictions like smoke and drink can help you to stay healthy and avoid unnecessary medical expenditures.
Keep in mind, your health is not something which you should compromise on, especially due to final constraints. Follow the above-mentioned tips to keep your healthcare expenditure low and yourself healthy, so that you can save your money, and if the need arises always buy medicines online with discount.