Think you're at a stand-still when it comes to getting the medications you need? You're not. Here are strategies to try if paying for your drugs is a problem.

For three years Debbie Bradley of Akron, Ohio, was nearly unrecognizable to her husband and daughter. Her rheumatoid arthritis (RA) had transformed her from an active person to someone in constant pain with no energy and even less hope. The ibuprofen her doctor prescribed merely "took the edge off." Bradley cut back from 40 to 30 hours a week on her job and spent most of her waking hours on the couch. "I hated what I had become," she says.

It wasn't until almost four years after her diagnosis that Bradley found relief. Her doctor prescribed celecoxib (Celebrex) and infliximab (Remicade). "I felt normal for the first time in three years," she says. "I went crazy—I played with my daughter and went shopping. I had the old me back."

Now, Bradley is working 40 hours again as a forklift operator for General Motors. And her 5-year-old daughter, Sydney, and her husband, Damon, have their mom and wife back. Life is good.

For people like Bradley, and tens of millions of others with arthritis or a related condition, medications are the key to reducing pain, delaying surgery and ensuring independence. Bradley was fortunate because her insurance paid the bulk of her medication expenses.

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