Comparing RX Discount cards
With ever increasing precription drugs cost sky rocketing it is good to know that you save money using a discount/coupon for your prescriptions. I have done many hours of research and the following are in my option the best ones.
As the years go by, the expenses of our necessities keep on increasing. Prescription drugs are an example of such needs. Consequently, many Americans cannot afford them. According to the KFF Health Tracking Poll 2021, 3 out of 10 patients cannot afford medicines as prescribed by their doctors due to the cost of the drugs. Nearly 7 in 10 Americans take prescription drugs regularly, according to the Mayo Clinic. It is estimated that 4.38 billion prescriptions were filled in 2019, according to government statistics, and that number keeps rising. That is almost 13 prescriptions per person in 2019. Fortunately, we have discount RX cards to lower the cost we pay. Unfortunately, if there is no generic drug, we need to rely on insurance or pay the cash price.
Rx Cards, also known as prescription discount cards, are the superheroes that have come to save the situation. These cards are advantageous because they allow patients to purchase prescriptions at a lower amount than the cash price or even an insurance plan. There are numerous Rx Cards available. As a result of this, American citizens may be left wondering which Rx card is the best. Are you in a dilemma and do not know which one to choose? Worry not! This article compares six different plans; I will detail the two best and the third runner-up. I will mention the three others. I compared pricing and ease of use, the number of pharmacies, and consistent pricing. You will see some examples of some commonly used prescriptions. GoodRx and RXSaver are my go-to companies. They both have the best pricing and are accepted at more pharmacies.
I have done the work for you, so you don’t have to go from one website to another to find out who is the best. I have spent over 10 hours and evaluated six RX discount card companies. I show examples and compare them to each other to save time and decide which to use.
GoodRx
GoodRx is a free prescription discount platform that helps you to save money by using coupons and discount cards. It offers a discount of up to 80% of the retail price and is easily accessible online or on the mobile app. The good thing is that you don’t have to sign up to use it. GoodRX also has a Gold plan that costs $5.99 for an individual or $9.99 for a family membership (including pets), saving you an additional ten percent. Depending on how many prescriptions you take a month, this could be a good thing; however, if you only take one and save only a dollar or two a month, this is not a good deal. It does not make sense to pay $71.88 to save $12-$24.
How GoodRx works:
To enjoy the benefits of this prescription discount platform, you have to go to their website or app and type the name of the medicine that you want. GoodRx will provide a list of local places where you can buy your prescription and the discounted price. Once you choose a place where you would like to buy the drug, you can print the GoodRx coupon and present it at the pharmacy to receive a discount, or you can use the app to show the price. You can even text the coupon to yourself. Below is an example of the generic drug Nexium. On the left, this is only 4 of the 10 Pharmacies that came up in my area. On the right, it shows when you click on the “GET FREE COUPON” is the coupon you present in the pharmacy. It is that easy.
Advantages of GoodRx:
70,000 + pharmacies accept GoodRx in the USA. These pharmacies are listed on the website. As such, you are free to purchase medicines at the pharmacy of your choice without having to worry about whether the pharmacy accepts GoodRx. By law, the pharmacy is obligated to accept the price on the discount card. If there is a problem, there are two numbers on the card. One for customer service and one for Pharmacist questions.
You can reuse the coupons since they don’t expire. Isn’t this a good deal? You don’t have to worry about the change of prices at the store because GoodRx coupons have your back. However, it is better to use new coupons every time because you can get a better deal.
Disadvantage of GoodRx
The negative is, if there is not a generic for the name brand drug, there will not be a discount price. This is the same for all the discount cards. Don’t just rely on the discount card because your insurance still might be cheaper.
RXSaver
RXSaver is part of the RetailMeNot organization. It’s also a free program. They offer a discount card, or you can print a coupon or use it on their app. You to save up to 85% of the retail price. It is accepted by 65,000+ pharmacies and is very similar to GoodRx. The only difference is that sometimes GoodRx is cheaper sometimes, RXSaver is cheaper. Most times, the difference is minor; however, if one saves you two dollars a month, that is $24 per year. Better in my pocket than a big corporation! That is why I use both cards.
How RXSaver works:
Just like GoodRx, RXSaver can be accessed online on their website or the mobile app. On these two platforms, you can type the name of the medicine you need, and it will show you a list of places where you can find the drug and the discounted price. When purchasing the medicine, you need to show your printed coupon or the coupon on your phone.
You can even see the brand price. After you enter the name of the drug, the generic comes up. On the left side of the site, you can change generic to brand to the difference.
Below is the generic for Crestor
Coupon
Brand Pricing
Advantages of RXSaver:
One unique feature of RXSaver is what I have shown above, seeing the retail price. Until another company can be consistent with pricing and have the wide range of pharmacies RXSaver and GoodRX have, I’m sticking with these two.
Disadvantage of RXSaver:
The only disadvantage I see is like all discount cards only support generic drugs.
The Rest
There are four other companies I compared, but one more for any consideration. RXLess was the runner-up because, as you know, I believe GoodRx and RXSaver were tied for first. RXLess did have some good pricing but was still higher than the two top dogs. They were also inconsistent with pricing. For example, Nexium (esomeprazole)was three times the cost of GoodRX. To be fair, this is still far better than the retail price of $248. The other big concern I had was that it was not available in all states. As of this writing and according to the RXLess website is not available in 14 states.
The other companies I researched were Optum Perks, WellRx and Blink Health. None of these companies are bad; they just were not the lowest cost, in my option did not compare to the top two. Optum Perks had some good pricing but was limited to the number of pharmacies from which to choose. Optum Perks does, however, have home delivery, and crazy as it might sound, the price is half the cost of going to the pharmacy in person. But be careful when ordering online; it might not be the same quantity and strength on the previous page. When having the prescription delivered, keep in mind it might take some time to get to you, and you don’t want to pay for expedited shipping if you can help it, which would probably cost you more than the prescription.
Bottom line:
It would be best if you considered different things when purchasing prescriptions and using RX discount cards, like the price, the number of pharmacies the prescription is available, whether you want your medicines to be delivered and customers reviews. Why would you pay two to three times the cost for the same thing? I have done all the hard work for you, and now you are armed to make the best decision for you and your family.
The Prescriptions below are named brand for identification purposes; however, the pricing is for the generic substitute. The retail cost is the brand drug cost; this cost differs by pharmacy and discount company.
