I hear you. The HSA gets cleaned out faster than I can contribute to it. Still, it might help a little at tax time. The company kicked in a little bit-basically the difference in their share of the premium-but we used it in a matter of weeks. These plans are for healthy people.
We tried the discount angle, but since most of our expenses are at the pharmacy it was a non-starter. They bill insurance if there is insurance, period, end of story. We have had no end of frustration with pharmacies. We now have a pharmacy that knows about our insurance and one that doesn't for medicines that are cheaper without insurance. They latter pharmacy really leans on us for insurance info, though. I suspect after Jan 1 they will no longer do any business without seeing an insurance card.
For pharmacies it is a non-starter. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. Contact the manufacture of the drugs directly, they usually have a plan for people with chronic conditions and low income. My mom had to take shots monthly for two years. The deductible using insurance would have been well over $350.00 a month. But the drug manufacture had a program and she qualified.
OOP costs for her was $75.00 which fit her budget much better.