Hacker News Reader

I find that kind of astounding. In the UK you pay a flat fee per prescribed medication, and multiple times I've had doctors prescribe me larger amounts on my repeat prescriptions so that I have to pay the flat fee less often - completely unprompted by me.

View on HN

Docs will do that in the US too sometimes, but one challenge is that the "fee" you owe with private insurance differs from plan to plan. Doctors can't track the hundreds of different plans, so they don't know if the more expensive branded drug will cost you $10 more per month or $100 more per month. If you share that info with your doctor they are more than happy to work with you.

I'm still confused.

Isn't it simply a matter of asking, "Is there a generic for this, doc?"

Both $10 and $100 are greater than $0, the patient almost certainly always wants $0, and a doctor can do that math without referring to your plan.

Or is this a case of this particular method being combined with N other methods such that the doctor has trouble getting the correct information to the patient?

Edit: By $0 I mean "$0 more than the cheapest generic." :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com