Prescription Discount Cards

Prescription discount cards

♦ Discount cards are not insurance.

♦ They can't be used together with insurance on the same prescription.

Generally, discount cards are most useful for people without prescription drug coverage. They tend to give the biggest discount on well-known generic drugs and the smallest discount on brand-name drugs.

Not everyone needs a discount card. Hundreds of generic medications are available for $4, or even free, without insurance and without a discount card.

If you have insurance, your copay might be the best price. But if your plan has a big copay, a separate prescription deductible, or doesn't cover your drug at all, then a discount card or online pharmacy may be a better option for you.

Big savings or not?

Discount cards all promise to save you lots of money on prescription drugs, for free. Promises range from 10% to as much as 90%.

Is this true? A huge discount, no. But there's a chance you'll get a little discount, more like 10 to 20 percent if you're lucky. The 70% deals are very, very rare.

• Consumer Reports once tried to figure out whether these discount cards were a scam. They even sent shoppers around to price drugs with several well-known cards. The end of the story: it was tough to even get a pharmacy to quote a price using the cards, and the pharmacies that did came back with very little savings.

♦ Some cards are not a scam.

But many are fishy, and some smell a lot like rotten fish. Even so, people without prescription coverage can sometimes save money with discount cards, especially the free ones. Figuring out which card saves the most is the hard part.

• Don't run to your local pharmacy with a handful of cards and ask for price checks. Your pharmacy won't welcome you. It takes the pharmacy staff more time, and costs the pharmacy more, to look up prices on discount cards than on insurance cards.

Understand that most pharmacies are charged a small fee by the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) to look up a price. If you don't buy, the pharmacy still gets stuck with the fee. Don't expect smiling faces if you're just comparing prices.

• If you do buy, the pharmacy will be happy. But the sale isn't as smooth for them as an insurance card. They'll most likely be charged a processing fee by the PBM, and they can't always pass it on to you.

In a sense, the pharmacy loses money. If you'd paid cash without the card, the store would have made more profit. That's a big reason discount cards aren't welcomed the same way insurance cards are.

Discount cards and Medicare

♦ If you're on Medicare, you can usually use a discount card like GoodRx instead of your drug plan. But what you pay won't count toward your Part D out-of-pocket cap. So it's best for cheap generics or drugs your plan doesn't cover at all.

We've found that if a medication isn't covered, discount cards are the way to go.

For example, a medication for lightening skin spots is considered cosmetic by Medicare and most insurance plans, so it isn't covered.

• Most pharmacies now have their own discount card they'll try to use to bring your price down. Sometimes it beats GoodRx.

• Manufacturer coupons are a different story. Those can't be used by anyone on Medicare or Medicaid.

Manufacturer's coupons and savings cards

Brand-name drugs can often be bought for less with a manufacturer's coupon or savings card than with a discount card. Many manufacturers offer special savings programs for people with financial needs, partly as public relations.

Other manufacturers offer savings cards to keep their brand competitive once a cheaper generic comes out.

• Many brand-name drug makers offer savings cards that can bring your copay down to a few dollars a month. They're especially common for newer, expensive drugs that compete with cheaper alternatives. Check the drug's website for a "savings card" or "copay card."

Some of these cards can even be used by people with private insurance to lower their copay.

• Unfortunately, they can't be used by anyone on government insurance like Medicare or Medicaid.

Protect your privacy

There's very little you can do to stop discount card promoters from collecting information on you. Most are marketing companies for big pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

♦ The PBM collects your information when your prescription is filled. The PBM often shares it with the marketing companies, which helps them promote their discount cards.

GoodRx is a good example of this business model. They work with several PBMs. GoodRx mentions this shared information in their privacy section and says they "de-identify" it by removing your name and date of birth.

♦ This isn't just a theory. In 2023 the FTC fined GoodRx $1.5 million for sharing users' health information, including what medications they took, with Facebook, Google and other advertisers. GoodRx agreed to stop.

♦ Any discount card company collecting personal information will almost certainly try to turn it into money by selling it to third parties, if not now then sometime in the future.

Third parties you hope will only fill your mailbox with junk, not do something malicious with your information.

Drug prices

Many discount card companies have websites where you can look up the price of a drug. If that option is available, check prices there first.

This will give you a rough idea of which local pharmacy may be cheapest. Keep in mind the prices online seldom match the price at the pharmacy.

They may be close, but often they're just a rough estimate. Other times they're just bait to get you to use their card.

Unfortunately, there's no way to guard against that kind of deception. Throw the card in the trash if there's no real savings.

GoodRx

GoodRx is a website that offers information on prescription drugs. They promote their own discount card and coupons.

They're really a marketing company for several pharmacy benefit managers. The PBMs are the ones that negotiate drug discounts with the pharmacies.

The GoodRx site seems to show different discounts from different PBMs. That gives you more choices in one place. But it's unlikely you'll actually get the very lowest prices they show.

Like all marketing companies, GoodRx makes money sending customers to PBMs, and PBMs in turn make money bringing customers into pharmacies. The pharmacies have to give up profits to make this business model work.

If you want to buy online, GoodRx may direct you to a mail-order pharmacy such as HealthWarehouse, which has quite a few good reviews and only a few bad ones.

• If you're on a maintenance drug, something you know won't change soon, mail order can save you a good amount of money.

♦ GoodRx is a mixed story. Lots of people love the discounts they're getting, but lots of people also complain that pharmacies refuse to accept their discount cards. Complaints about unresponsive customer service are common too. So we decided to give GoodRx a test.

We ran prices for generic Crestor (rosuvastatin) at GoodRx.

• They suggested prices at a number of pharmacies using their coupon.

When we first ran the test, a 30-day supply of 10 mg rosuvastatin came up at $14.91 at Walmart.

We headed to our local Walmart to see if they'd accept the coupon and come close to the price it showed.

Wow... a 30-day supply cost exactly $14.91. It really worked!

The same prescription would have cost our test customer $30 with his BlueCross BlueShield insurance.

So in this case, he paid cash and saved money. Our opinion: GoodRx is worth a try if you don't mind changing pharmacies.

♦ Prices move around. When we checked again in October 2026, GoodRx showed the same prescription at $11.17 at Walmart, $15.07 at Kroger and $31.87 at Walgreens. That's almost a $21 difference for the exact same pills, so check prices more than once.

• We also gave it a shot for a friend on Medicare Advantage.

We took a coupon to Publix for a very expensive cough medicine his insurance didn't cover.

It came back at less than half the regular price. He's still coughing, but he's much happier.

GoodRx Companion: this is the membership program GoodRx is now pushing. It replaced GoodRx Gold as their main paid plan in 2026.

It costs $14.99 a month, or about $10 a month if you pay for a full year. It includes more than 200 common generics for $0, plus cheaper online doctor visits. There's also a family plan that can include pets.

Is it worth it? Only if the free list covers drugs you'd otherwise pay more than about $15 a month for. For a couple of cheap generics, the free GoodRx coupons may be just as good.

GoodRx also offers online doctor visits through GoodRx Care. Members pay less than non-members, so check their site for current prices.

Membership programs

It's hard to justify paying money for a discount card or program.

AAA® and AARP® both offer their members a free prescription discount card. A Consumer World study didn't find significant savings with either program when it compared prices for a common cholesterol-lowering drug.

If you're already a member of either group, it's worth checking whether you can save on your particular medication.

If you're not a member, you'd be better off trying some of the free discount cards first.

Drugstore programs

Some drugstore chains, like Walgreens, have a prescription savings program for around $20 to $35 a year. If you don't have insurance, or your insurance won't cover your prescription, this kind of program may save you money over the course of a year.

Since it's the pharmacy's own program, the staff will be glad to give you a price for your prescription with and without signing up.

• Before you sign up, ask the pharmacist to run your prescription both ways so you can see the actual savings.

Add up your savings to see if a program like this will work for you. You may find it would take months to earn back the fee.

• Read the rules carefully before signing up, because most of these programs don't work if you're 65 or older and on Medicare.

Alternatives

$4 Drugs

Many common generic drugs cost around $4 for a 30-day supply at Walmart, Costco, Sam's Club and many larger supermarket chains.

Costco is a membership club, but Costco pharmacies are open to non-members where required by state law. Depending on your state, you may not need to pay a membership fee to use their pharmacy.

Costco members can join the Costco Prescription Program for free. It gives extra savings on many popular drugs, plus pet medications.

Sam's Club is a membership club, but you don't have to be a member to buy prescriptions. Sam's Club says it offers more than 200 medications for $4, but these appear to be for members. Their higher-level Plus membership gets you a number of generics for $0.

Depending on where you live, you may also want to check supermarket chains like Meijer, Giant Eagle, Price Chopper and Stop & Shop.

Publix used to offer some medications free, but that program ended in 2022. They still offer 29 common maintenance medications at a low price of $7.50 per 90-day supply. Medications like amlodipine (blood pressure) and cholesterol. Check with your local Publix for current prices.

Newer low-cost options

Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (costplusdrugs.com) sells generics online at the manufacturer's cost plus a 15% markup, a pharmacy fee and shipping. Prices are posted right on the site. For many generics, it's cheaper than any discount card.

Amazon RxPass covers dozens of common generics for a flat $5 a month if you're an Amazon Prime member. Check whether it's available to you, especially if you're on Medicare.

Conclusion

There's a thriving business around prescription discount cards. Some come from drug companies promoting their products, some from nonprofits, and some from county governments trying to help their residents. But the vast majority come from companies trying to cash in on a need.

If your prescriptions cost too much, discount cards are worth the time and effort to try. Finding a good one may be a challenge.

♦ Keep your expectations realistic: 70% savings are rare, and 90% doesn't happen.

Brand-name drug? Go to the manufacturer's website, look for a savings card or program, and take advantage of it as long as you can.

Generic drug? Check Cost Plus Drugs, the $4 lists and GoodRx before you pay full price.