Are you paying too much for your generic drugs?

Drugs are expensive. It's no secret to anyone who's had to obtain a prescription. Why else would hordes of those needing medicine cross the border into Canada or Mexico to stock up on the prescriptions? The fact that anyone would go to Mexico of all places to get something like MEDICINE should speak to the frustrations we're all feeling with the cost of medications. It's part and parcel of America's ongoing argument about the increasing cost of health care.

Generic drugs were meant to be the answer to a big part of this problem. When the patent expires on a brand-name drug, that patented formula is available to every pharmaceutical company to produce their own off-brand version of the drug. An example of this is Zocor, a commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drug. Millions have changed to the generic version of Zocor because of the promise of lower insurance co-pays, and lower out-of-pocket costs.

But while the price has indeed dropped, the lower price varies widely from retailer to retailer. For example, a 30-day course of 20 milligrams of Zocor will cost you $150 online at Walgreens.com, while the generic version simvastatin costs just $90. But the same dose of simvastatin costs $109 at the CVS online pharmacy.

The fact that generic drugs aren't suddenly nearly free seems to have many people flummoxed. But the fact that in our free market-based economy the price of generic versions of drugs like Zocor are subject to the market conditions that influence every other consumer product should be an accepted fact.

If I've taught you anything about health care in our country, it's that patients need to think like educated consumers and take a buyer-beware attitude toward EVERYTHING: doctors, hospitals, drugs, treatments, surgeries and pretty much everything in between. You need to treat your drug store purchases with the same care and attention that you'd treat the purchase of a car or a house. Too often, patients are handed a prescription (the need for which they don't question) and head to the corner pharmacy, where they pay whatever the pharmacist charges. You need to shop smarter than that.

A big part of being a wise consumer is determining whether you really even need to be taking the drugs you've been prescribed. Often there are natural alternatives that are much cheaper and more effective. If you really do need your prescriptions - and, trust me, you really may not -- buy generic. But don't be afraid to shop around.

That there are generic options at all is a good thing, especially when you see this next statistic…

More than half of Americans are on drugs

According to a new study, more than half of all insured Americans are taking prescription drugs regularly to combat chronic health issues.

The study was conducted last year by Medco Health Solutions, Inc., which manages prescription benefits for nearly a fifth of the U.S. population. Experts who've examined the data say that this not only reflects on the declining health of Americans, but the fact that doctors have become more aggressive with their treatments of various diseases.

And let's not forget Big Pharma's endless hammering at the public conscience with advertising. The airwaves are crammed with a seemingly endless parade of cure-alls for every manner of health problem. It's turned us into a nation of hypochondriacs who seek quick-fix solutions for real or imagined health issues. And the fastest way to any cure in the American culture is to pop a pill. In fact, Americans buy more medicine per capita than any other country on earth.

This study was disturbing to many doctors. Dr. Daniel Jones, the president of the American Heart Association, fears that "unless we do things to change the way we're managing health in this country, things will get worse instead of getting better."

The bottom line is that we've been overmedicated for quite a long time here in America. And no demographic slice of the population seems to be immune this pill-popping phenomena.

The only group that I think could possibly be happy about a study with results as dreary as this could be Big Pharma. As always, our misery is their gain.