(The following excerpt was written by Carroll County Commissioner Julia Gouge in an article intended for her county constituents. Has YOUR county looked into the FREE and cost-saving NACo Prescription Card program?

“… This is a plan that’s free to any person living in Carroll County. There is a number on each card, and that number is recorded by the pharmacy you use. Then the number is used to tabulate the money saved on each prescription. As a county, we get reports of money saved – but it’s important to note that we do not have the names of the people using them.

It’s private, just between you and the pharmacy. One card will work for each family and even includes pet medications. The card gives users a savings on prescriptions from 20 to 26 percent off the price they would normally pay for generic and non-generic drugs. The cards are free to the people and free to the county.

I am trying to spread the word about this service, and I’m hoping the information will get to all the people who need it. Thankfully, many more pharmacies are giving great discounts on generic drugs, but this service can be used for the medicines you normally pay full price for; for example, a drug costing $100.00 would be reduced by 20-26% with the use of the card.

Carroll County citizens have saved more than $850,000 on prescriptions over the past three years. Last month, in Carroll County alone, $43,555.94 was saved by 981 people using the card. . . ”

(Contact Andrew Goldschmidt at NACo for more information.)