101 Ways to Save Money on Health Care: Tips to Help You Spend Smart and Stay Healthy
As health insurers raise co-pays, approximately 45 million Americans have no coverage at all, and growing  numbers risk playing prescription roulette—filling only two of three or four medications prescribed or taking medicines for chronic conditions every other day instead of daily—Koelker offers a much-needed doctor’s reference for readers hungry for help. Suggestions include splitting pills; requesting samples to save on prescription meds; accessing pharmaceutical companies’ coupons or rebates; and economizing on preventive care via free and low-cost testing at health fairs, health departments, and pharmacies. Koelker states, “Taking responsibility for our own health care is the first way to lower costs for each of us as individuals, as well as the nation at large. Thinking ahead would limit expensive trips to the emergency room . . . and many cases of chronic illness.” With an index and user-friendly appendixes listing general Internet resources, pharmacies with $4 per monthly generics, and proprietary and OTC websites “with offers,” this will circulate briskly. --Whitney Scott