There’s no two ways about it: prescription medication is expensive. Especially if your insurance won’t cover it or worse, you don’t have insurance at all. That’s where discount cards and programs like GoodRx can come into play. Are they better than insurance?
Here’s Five Fast Facts on Prescription Discount Plans:
- 🩻 X-Ray? - Prescription discount programs allow you to visit their site and find which participating pharmacies have the best pricing through the program’s discount.
- 💊 Big Difference - According to GoodRx, people who used their program saved an average of 81% off retail prices in 2021. Considering drug costs, that’s huge!
- 🧪 Side Effects - It’s not always affordable, either. Sometimes the prices are more expensive, not all pharmacies (especially small mom and pop joints) don’t or can’t participate, leaving you out in the cold.
- 💉 Get in Line - Here’s where it gets sticky: the discounts come from the manufacturers, not the pharmacy. So big pharma is still getting a cut of your cash and the pharmacy gets less.
- ⚕️Pay Up - There’s one last catch: You cannot use your insurance in conjunction with the discount. There is no co-pay or out-of-pocket cap. If it’s $50 a month, it’s $50 a month every month and those prices can go up without warning.
🔥Bottom line: These programs can provide you with some impressive savings. You’ll just have to work a bit harder to find and get them. And while it’s not perfect, at least programs like this exist to help people who need it. Especially since drug prices aren’t getting any cheaper.
Do you use a discount program?
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