How do Prescription Discount cards work? Do I need health insurance to use them? Is the discount better than the one I would receive with my health insurance… will I pay less?

You do not need health insurance to use a Free Prescription Discount Card. And, you may be able to get a better price, even if you do have health insurance with a prescription benefit. It all depends on the plan.

After a little investigation on the internet I found that there are any number of prescription discount cards, and most are free. And some potentially save you money – in this case it also depends on the prescription.

I was interested in pricing a particular prescription I take and so I picked out five discount cards that might work at local pharmacies, GoodRx, RxSaver, AARP Prescription Discount Card, WellRx and SingleCare. In each case I went on-line and was allowed to print out a coupon with the pharmacy name & the anticipated price. To be clear… I priced the same medicine, the same dose, the same number of pills – and the prices were all different! In my case, the prices listed for my prescription ranged from $22.52 to $41.68, all lower than I would have to pay if I used my health insurance benefit, and perhaps lower than standard pharmacy prices.

My experience: I chose the pharmacy which appeared to give a lower price & I asked my doctor’s office to send my prescription there. Armed with all five discount coupons, I went to pick up my prescription. As it turned out, GoodRx was the only discount coupon this particular pharmacy recognized. The good news… with the coupon, I saved money. If I had used my insurance pharmacy benefit, I would have paid $48.92 MORE! This may be an extreme example because my health insurance carrier classified the prescription as a Tier 3 drug – but I’m sure you get the gist.

So, should you consider using a Prescription Discount Card? Depending on the prescription… on the positive side it may save you money… on the negative side, it may cost you time and effort to research the various options for each individual prescription. You’ll need to decide!