How do old people do it?

I get a prescription every month for oral contraceptives. I used to just pay for them every month at Walgreens and the prescription copay was $20 per month, or $240 per year. This past spring when I went to see my OB/GYN, I asked for the prescription to be written out for 3 months at a time. This would mean that I could use my insurance company's mail-order pharmacy and save some money. The first 3-month supply I ordered cost me $50, which would be $200 per year. Everyone who knows me knows how I like to save money, so of course this makes sense to buy through them. Fast forward three months when it is time to refill the prescription. I logged on to the Medco website and it told me that my same 3-month supply was going to cost $100, or $400 per year. EXCUSE ME? How can it double in price? I spent I don't know how long trying to find a phone number on their site for customer service. Finally, after much ado, I found out that my prescription now has a generic formula on the market, so they are allowed to charge more for the brand-name drugs. Now it is up to me to contact my doctor and have her prescribe the generic drug (assuming she approves the formulary) via fax to Medco. Presumably then, it should cost $20 every three months, or $80 per year.

The moral of this story is that a little extra leg-work on your part can save you some money, but how do elderly people deal with this sort of scam? Nowhere on the site did it inform me that my medicine now has a generic counterpart and explain the cost increase. I bet thousands of people just shrug their shoulders and pay the higher price.