Allergies Without Insurance a Financial Burden

Sept. 18, 2008 — -- Compared to other chronic conditions like heart disease or diabetes, treating allergies may be relatively inexpensive. But for those without health insurance, personal circumstances and medical costs can quickly add up to a price that is simply out of reach.

And as more allergy medicines transitioned to over-the-counter status beginning in 2001, even some allergy sufferers with health insurance began having trouble affording their treatments.

In these situations, the only choice left for someone with allergies may be to soldier on, miserable, before ending up in the ER.

Quantifying the cost of having an allergy is difficult because of the range of types and severities.

For example, allergic rhinitis, or hay fever, could require two or three visits to a doctor each year plus a supply of over-the-counter antihistamine medication, which can cost about $1,000 yearly, according to a report from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

"It's doable, but it's not free," said Dr. Jonathan Bernstein, a professor of medicine in the University of Cincinnati's Division of Immunology and Allergy. "It depends on proper diagnosis and proper treatment, but the cost to manage a patient with seasonal allergic rhinitis is not that expensive."

Before 2001, powerful anti-allergy medicines like Allegra, Zyrtec and Claritin were only available with a prescription. That changed when the health care giant WellPoint Health Networks petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to grant these drugs over-the-counter status. This meant that consumers could now get these drugs at a lower cost, without a doctors prescription.

But this also meant that insurance companies were no longer obliged to cover the cost ot these medicines -- making them more expensive for some with health insurance whose copays would have allowed them to spend less on the drugs.

Moreover, soon after these popular drugs went over the counter, a number of insurers yanked coverage for more powerful prescription allergy drugs. While this meant big savings for insurers, those who relied upon these stronger counterparts were left with higher bills each allergy season.

Fortunately, some sufferers may need no more than a bottle of Benadryl to stop a mild reaction once in a while. But others might be in and out of an emergency room, in need of epinephrine shots to prevent going into anaphylactic shock.

"They're accessing care at the most expensive end of the spectrum," said Patricia White, executive director of West Virginia Health Right, West Virginia's largest free clinic, of those who do not seek treatment until they need to go to an ER. "They're living on the edge before all of these costs."

Free clinics can be an excellent resource for people without health insurance to seek treatment and advice for their allergies. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 45.7 million Americans went uninsured in 2007. But free clinics can be underutilized.

"A lot of times, patients won't come in unless they're really, really sick," said Diane Anderson, a family nurse practitioner who works at Mission East Dallas, a free clinic in Texas.