Modafinil now covered by insurance

1 Post author: James_Miller 26 September 2012 12:15AM

Modafinil is now being covered by at least one insurance company in Massachusetts under which it costs less than $1 for a 200 MG pill.  I predict a huge college black-market trade in the drug.

Comments (13)

Comment author: evand 26 September 2012 01:06:28AM 11 points [-]

No link, no mention of what Modafinil is or why I should care, not even a name of the insurance company? You haven't even assigned a likelihood to your prediction, which leaves it unworthy of Predictionbook, never mind a LW post.

Comment author: James_Miller 26 September 2012 02:16:09AM *  7 points [-]

Wikipedia link added, you should care if you had been considering using the drug but if you have then my post has immediate actionable value, I would rather not disclose the name of my insurance company, >50% for elite schools.

Comment author: gwern 26 September 2012 01:15:23AM 3 points [-]

Indeed. Modafinil is already a somewhat popular study drug, so there may be no major increase from any price drop - not that I know how one would quantify uptake since college surveys tend to be one-offs...

Comment author: James_Miller 26 September 2012 02:07:13AM *  2 points [-]

There is a huge black market in Adderall at my college but, to the best of my knowledge, none in Modafinil.

Comment author: knb 26 September 2012 08:28:17AM *  0 points [-]

Probably because Adrafinil is still unscheduled and essentially the same thing, nobody really is that worried about paying a premium for modafinil. I've been buying adrafinil for a little over 2 dollars per dose. Modafinil is better for everyday use (more liver stress with adrafinil) especially if you can get a scrip, but "study aids" are normally not taken every day anyway.

Comment author: wallowinmaya 27 September 2012 01:22:52PM 1 point [-]

I think you mixed up Adrafinil and Adderall.

Comment author: knb 27 September 2012 05:59:01PM *  1 point [-]

Lol no. Adrafinil is a prodrug of modafinil, currently unscheduled in the US. Adderall is extremely scheduled. ;)

Comment author: wallowinmaya 27 September 2012 08:11:08PM 0 points [-]

Yeah, I know that. Anyway, I misread your whole comment. My bad.

Comment author: thomblake 27 September 2012 07:07:42PM 0 points [-]

Adderall is extremely scheduled.

Yeah, I'm not sure how someone could make that mistake, but then I'm used to seeing my prescription bag waiting for me with a big "IN THE SAFE" label on it.

Comment author: Nick_Tarleton 27 September 2012 01:38:56AM 2 points [-]

This is more expensive than some existing online sources, per gwern's writeup; it does avoid concerns about purity (reasonable) and legal risk (seemingly groundless).

Comment author: AspiringRationalist 26 September 2012 01:58:04AM 1 point [-]

Which insurer?

And only if you are diagnosed with narcolepsy, or will they cover it off-label?

Comment author: James_Miller 26 September 2012 02:05:38AM 1 point [-]

You just need a prescription.

Comment author: Protagoras 29 September 2012 09:52:54PM *  0 points [-]

Interesting. Due to ADHD, I've been prescribed modafinil, and I've been prescribed various amphetamines (including adderall). My own experience is that the modafinil seemed to stop working after a while; it definitely did not seem as helpful as the amphetamines. Of course I'm just one case, and there are any number of reasons my own self-observations could be unreliable, but the drug industry does have a history of frequently making unfounded claims about the superiority of more profitable new drugs over less profitable old drugs, so I'm always fairly skeptical of newish drugs anyway.

[additional note: I just checked gwern's writeup, and discovered that tolerance is apparently a known issue with modafinil; it's not just me.]