OK,how fucked up is this?

I started a new job and my insurance started after 30 days - so starts today, May 1st. But it takes a week or so to get the insurance cards.......

Now - a couple of weeks ago I had pneumonia - and with insurance not effective yet, paid $210 for the doctor visit/breathing treatments, and luckily the prescription wasn't THAT bad, around $45. The worst part though, was that as I just started my new job - and hadn't earned paid time off yet, I had to take the 4 days without pay - so let's just say that money is extremely tight.

Well.......I needed a refill of my prescription before then, so went to WalMart to get just a few pills to last till Friday when I get paid, and can pick up the rest of my prescription. Before they have just given me the 3-4 pills, then when I picked up the rest of the prescription they would give me the remainder and charge me for the full prescription - I have only had to do that once before, but it was sure a help.

Well, they don't do that anymore.

Not only do they not do that, my 30 day prescription is $112, which is $3.73 per pill. And since I could not pay for the entire prescription - I was charged $8.00 per pill - so I could only afford 2 pills which still leaves me a day short.

I am so pissed I can not se straight. Now I know it is almost as much work for the pharmacist to fill a prescription for 2 pills as it is for 30 - BUT the damn pharmacy is not going to go belly up because they 1) either gave me a few pills to tide me over till I picked up the remainder; or 2) charged me the $3.73 per pill that a full prescription costs.

This is not just any old prescription - it is for my Effexor XR, which I take for depression. Two year ago my other med quit working - and it was hell. The Effexor XR is not perfect but by God I can function. And Effexor is NOT a med that a person can quit taking cold turkey - that is not a pretty sight. Neither is it pretty if I don't have it - I will leave it at that.

So tomorrow I will call the insurance company and get my information as I don't have my cards yet, and will call the pharmacy I am allowed to use and have them call WalMart and get my prescription transferred over - hopefully this will work and I can pick up a month's worth on Friday, which is payday. The insurance company says they won't pay for Effexor XR unless it is proven the patient tried other meds first - but from what I have read I have been on it long enough that I am grandfathered in and they won't make me change it. I totally do not believe in insurance companies making doctors fuck with patients' meds - especially mental health meds - that is nothing to mess with.

So, am going to have a cup of tea, calm down, and then fix something for supper.