Pills are part of our lives. 60% of American adults take at least one prescription. 25%. Take four or more. Most of us, more than 80% think the cost of prescription drugs is too high. Do you think they're too expensive? Of course, I do. Yes. Yeah. Depends on what kind of insurance you have. Also. I know *** lot of older people, sometimes they have to choose between getting their medications or getting food. Lisa Gill is *** health and medicine investigative reporter for consumer reports in the United States. We have probably one of the strangest prescription drug markets, I would say anywhere in the world. Um, it's all backwards and the true costs are hidden from the consumer until you actually pay cash and it's up to you to try to find the lowest possible possible price. She suggests seven ways to save one. Always check to see if there's *** generic version of your medicine. 90% of drugs have *** generic equivalent and they're *** lot cheaper. Two give good Rx *** try. It's *** free mobile app and website that compares prescription prices in your area. Typically any pharmacy in your zip code or your area. Um either through their app or just by printing out like *** little coupon on their website uh that provide, you know, when it's scanned by the pharmacist that provides *** pretty, can be *** really huge discount. But understand that whatever you do that payment may not count against your insurance deductible. Three, some pharmacies offer their own discount programs. *** lot of retailers, Walmart Chief among them, along with CBS and others offer *** lot of times different discounted generic drug programs. Sometimes you have to sign up for them in the case of CBS. But in others like Walmart, you can just simply when you go to fill *** prescription, find out if that medication is on their discount list. Four online pharmacies like Mark Cuban cost plus drugs, Dirx and Health Warehouse can be *** good option for generic drugs. These pharmacies for, for some of the most common generic drugs. I mean, they can be literally like pennies on the dollar per pill. But again, those pennies don't count against your deductible five manufacturer coupons. When the drug company provides *** discount, manufacture coupons for the for an individual consumer. Sometimes are the only mechanism by which you'll be able to truly afford the drug. And it's amazing what some of the discounts can be. Six, some drugs have patient assistance programs that are income based the requirements for to meet income thresholds used to be really only for low income individuals and people that were sort of at or below poverty level. But the requirements have expanded so that many, many more people can qualify. Number seven, go to an independent pharmacy. The independent pharmacy has *** lot of leeway over price. They can help you with all, all different kinds of, of needs that you may have. And it's kind of nice to have that one on one in person relationship. It's of *** bygone era, but it's still, it is still very much alive and well and it's pretty special pepper. Ka Mince would agree. We treat our customers like family, they are our family. So we know each and every one of them. They've lived in the neighborhood for years. She says customers may be surprised to find out it can be cheaper to pay cash for medication than use your insurance. Thankfully, legislation was passed that we are now allowed to tell patients if their co pay is actually higher than the retail cost of the medication. She believes the biggest benefit of an independent pharmacy. There's *** less expensive medication out there that does exactly the same thing and it's way less expensive, they can work with your physician to actually change the prescription to the less expensive medication. Lisa Gill says the bottom line, you can save like thousands of dollars *** year by shopping around. But at the same time, like who wants to do that? You really should just be able to take *** prescription to your local pharmacy and just get it filled and just pay, you know, five bucks or 10 bucks. But that is not always the case.