Medication for emergencies – Be Prepared Tip #16

Hi friends,

I’m out of town for a wedding and having a blast seeing family (my grandbaby!!) and helping out during this exciting time.

I have to admit, I’m a bit behind on my NaNoWriMo goal to write 50k this month, so I’ll have to buckle down when I get back home next week.

However, I wrote 5 1/2 chapters last week, so that helps.

With Thanksgiving coming up next week, I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday and time with family!

My next newsletter will be Dec. 2nd since I’ve scaled back to the first and third Fridays of the month. As always, please email with any feedback, questions or just to say hi.

And for our prepping tip today, here are some ideas on stockpiling medication for emergencies:

Medications for Emergencies

Having plenty of food storage won’t help someone who relies on a medication that runs out during an emergency.

So, here are a few ideas on how to get more than a 1-month supply to be more prepared.

1. Switch to a 90-day mail order supply. Most insurance companies offer 90 days at a time for long-term medications and this will give you a longer cushion should an emergency happen.
2. Ask for another 90-day prescription and pay for it yourself. With a cooperating physician, explain your plan to be prepared, perhaps a need to travel or other reason that you would like to have enough medication for a longer term emergency. Even if insurance won’t cover the extra prescription, it might be worth it to you to get the prescription filled. (Note: You’ll want to use a different pharmacy as the one who just filled the identical drug will usually balk at giving you another refill before it’s due.
3. Save money: Try GoodRx – the app will give you a coupon and show discounted prices at local drug stores in the U.S. It’s completely free and can often give you even better prices than your insurance does. I know it has for me!
4. Not super common, but: We recently changed medical insurances, and while going through the hassle of changing over all my medications from one 90-day supplier to another, I discovered a hidden benefit of the change:

I got all new 90-day bottles of my prescriptions, regardless of how much medication I had left from the previous supplier!!

So awesome! This gives me a much better cushion of medications should a long-term emergency happen.

I know that changing insurances isn’t something that happens often, but if it does, make sure to get a refill of everything to add to your emergency storage.

5. Finally, I store medications long term by placing them in mason jars with oxygen absorbers and then in the back of my basement fridge. Freezing is usually not recommended.

How about you?

What plans do you have to help make sure you and your loved ones have the correct medications during an emergency?

Thanks for all your support and have an amazing holiday!

— Misty 🙂