Prescription drug coverage – many of us who pay for our own heath insurance often are faced with deciding if such a coverage is worth the sticker price placed on it. While many who are provided with health insurance by their employers often take this sort of coverage for granted, as employee benefit packages aren’t likely to exclude this feature if health care coverage is included.

However, for those of you who are shopping around for health insurance and must choose between a plan that offers this coverage from one that does not, it is important to consider what your current or previous health coverage needs are and whether foregoing this coverage and paying for medications as you go is the more cost effective method. There are those cases where one may obtain certain prescription medications from a generic brand that is often two or three times less expensive than the name brand version. And if these instances are coupled with a low incidence or need for prescription medication, as you are rarely sick or requiring care beyond an over the counter drug, than possibly foregoing prescription medication coverage is the way to go.

There are also those instances when either a generic brand is nonexistent or does not perform as well as the name brand alternative – then you might quickly realize that the extra $19 a month for this coverage is well worth it, particularly if you foresee a medium to long term need for this prescription medication. Seasonal allergy sufferers may fall within this category, as many tend to find that certain brands work while others have a less noticeable effect on their symptoms. In such cases, the name brand or higher priced prescription may be the only alternative.

Finally, there do exist certain web sites that offer assistance to those lacking drug coverage and may serve as a consideration when deciding whether or not to forgo the additional cost of coverage.