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Updated On: January 13, 2021

Best Prescription Discount Cards for Seniors

Amie Clark - Author
Cory Smith - Expert

Prescription discount cards can save you money on costly medications. In this rundown, we’ll take a look at how these programs work and provide in-depth details about several popular discount card, helping you choose the best one for you and your loved ones.

#1 GoodRx

Their prescription discount cards:

GoodRx offers free prescription discounts reaching as high as 80% at over 70,000 pharmacies throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, including Safeway, Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, and more. Savings extend to the entire family, including pets.

Why We Recommend GoodRx

  • No sign-up required nor credit card is needed.
  • An average customer saves $355 per year on medication.
  • The company saves Americans $20 million a day.
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#2 WellRx

Their prescription discount cards:

WellRx helps you save up to 85% on your prescriptions with its free discount card and user-friendly app.

Why We Recommend WellRx

  • The average savings is 60%.
  • Discounts on pet medication.
  • Simply show your card or app for discounts.
  • Easy-to-use search tool to find the best prices
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#3 SingleCare

Their prescription discount cards:

SingleCare’s super-smart system searches for the lowest medication prices and sends you a coupon to present at the counter of over 35,000 popular pharmacies nationwide, including Kroger, Walmart, Albertsons, CVS, and more.

Why We Recommend SingleCare

  • Save up to 80% on medications.
  • Free to use, with no fees or ongoing obligations
  • Get a coupon via text, email, or simply by printing it from your computer.
#4 Blink Health

Their prescription discount cards:

Blink Health is a prescription savings program that allows you the choice between local pickup and home delivery while providing considerable discounts on medication at over 35,000 pharmacies in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Why We Recommend Blink Health

  • Pay online, and pick up medications the same day at your local pharmacy.
  • Price-match guarantee at pharmacies in your community.
  • Save up to 80% on 15,000 medications.
  • You have the option of home delivery.

The High Cost of Prescription Medication

Together, Americans spend over $400 billion on prescriptions each year, and that takes into account common discounts and rebates. On average, that’s more than $1,100 for each person per year. In short, U.S. prescription drug prices are out of control for the average person. With this knowledge, we imagine it doesn’t surprise anyone that one in four Americans has trouble affording their prescription medication, and this number increases to one in three for older adults.

Fortunately, insurance isn’t the only way to lower those expensive prescription costs and get the medicines you need. Prescription discount cards can help get you some financial relief on your medications as well, and unlike insurance, they’re totally free!

Savings Tip: Cut your prescription costs by up to 50 percent with pill splitting, purchasing a larger pill size, then splitting the pills to make them the dosage you need. Keep in mind some medications, such as extended-release capsules, should never be broken.

Prescription Discount Cards 101

What Are Prescription Discount Cards

Prescription discount cards are free (in most cases) cards that save you money on your medications.

How Do Prescription Discount Cards Work

Discount programs use the power of bulk purchasing to negotiate savings on medications with pharmacies. This discount is usually a percentage of the cash price but still allows the pharmacy to profit. Whenever a customer uses the savings card, the pharmacy compensates the card company with a small referral fee. The pharmacy benefits from more traffic to their store, the card owner’s make money, and card users save.

Coverage

Many prescription discount cards cover FDA-approved prescription medications, but some are limited to a smaller number of drugs. Some cover over-the-counter and pet medications as well. The majority of cards cover both generic and brand name drugs.

Savings

Depending on your specific card, pharmacy, and location, savings from your prescription discount card will vary. In most cases, savings will range from 20 to 80 percent. Even $20 of savings per month adds up over time.

Brand Discounts: If there is no generic version of the medication you need, there’s no reason to pay an arm and a leg. Go to the medication’s website and look for a discount. Chances are, you’ll find one and decrease your costs dramatically, often reaching as low as $5 to $10 per month.

How We Chose the Best Prescription Discount Cards

We considered many factors when selecting our choices for Best Prescription Discount Cards, but these five held the most weight. These are also topics you’ll want to revisit as you determine which prescription discount card is best for you.

  • Savings: In this category, we looked at the percentage of the discount offered on our prescriptions and the total amount we saved.
  • Coverage: Here, we took note of how many drugs the card covered, how many pharmacies partnered with our card provider, and how close those pharmacies were in relation to us.
  • Privacy: We looked at how much information, if any, we were expected to give the companies and then reviewed their privacy policies for how they were allowed to use the data we gave them.
  • Customer Service: How long did we have to wait to speak with a real person? How friendly and helpful were they?
  • Reliability: We looked at whether or not discount card companies did what they said they would, including whether the discounts were the same as they said online.

Popular Prescription Discount Cards

For your peace of mind, all cards we selected are free, cover generic drugs, and have no demographic or income restrictions of any kind. Here are our rankings of the best prescription discount cards.

  • #1 GoodRx - Best All-Around Value

    See Pricing

    Overview

    How to sign up: No sign up necessary, but you can sign up to save your prescription customizations

    Pharmacies: More than 70,000 pharmacies across the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands

    What’s covered: All FDA-approved prescription medications and hundreds of over-the-counter drugs and medical supplies are covered under this card. A GoodRx card also covers human-equivalent pet prescriptions.

    If You Have Insurance: You cannot combine GoodRx with insurance, but you can use it instead of insurance. However, the purchase will not count toward your insurance deductible.

    How to Use: Search for your prescription online, customize your coupon, print it, and bring it with you to the pharmacy. Alternatively, use the GoodRx app and show your digital coupon to the pharmacist.

    Savings: While this varies based on the specific medication, a GoodRx card can save you up to 80 percent.

    What We Loved:

    • Biggest Savings: After comparing prices offered by several discount companies for each of my prescriptions, GoodRx offered the largest discount the majority of the time. We could count on it to save us the most overall.
    • Mobile App: The mobile app was easy to use. I never experienced any bugs, and the app offered extra perks like price drop notifications and a pill identifier.
    • Customer Service: We never had to wait more than five minutes on hold, and when my pharmacist was confused about something with my card, the GoodRx Customer Advocates were able to help him out and get me my discount.

    We Weren’t So Keen On:

    • Discounts Vary By Day: Occasionally, the percentage of discounts we saw when we printed our coupon changed by the time we picked up my medication a day or two later, which could make it difficult to plan on a tight budget.

    Our Verdict

    GoodRx came through on some solid discounts time and again. Although the amount that was discounted sometimes varied, we usually saved more with GoodRx than any other card. Their
    website and mobile app were also easy to navigate.

  • #2 WellRx - Widest Range of Medications

    Senior discount prescription drug cards for seniors.
    See Pricing

    Overview

    How to Sign Up: Sign up online at the WellRX website and download your card immediately onto your smartphone.
    Pharmacies: WellRx is accepted at 65,000 pharmacies nationwide.

    What’s Covered: All prescription medications are covered by WellRx, though the discount will vary with each one.

    If You Have Insurance: You can use WellRx for any prescriptions not covered by insurance.

    If you have Medicare Part D, you can use WellRx for any prescriptions not included in Medicare Part D. If you have Medicare but are not enrolled in Part D, you can use WellRx freely.

    How to Use: Print your WellRx card and bring it with you to the pharmacy OR use the WellRx mobile app, available on Apple and Google Play app stores.

    Savings: WellRx offers an average discount of 60% on medications, potentially up to 80%. Similar discounts are available for pet medications.

    What We Loved:

    • Savings: One trip to the pharmacy using WellRx can result in hundreds of dollars in savings.
    • Reputation: WellRx is over 25 years old, making it one of the oldest companies of its kind.
    • Extras: Registered members receive perks such as Ask a Pharmacist, the ability to set reminders to take or refill medication, a pill identifier tool, and a grocery guide for nutrition.

    What We Weren’t So Keen On:

    • Actual vs. Potential Savings: Most medications were between 40 to 60 percent off, rather than the advertised 80.
    • Personal Info: Although sign up requires minimal information and WellRx’s policy claims they don’t give out personal information, there are other discount cards that don’t require any personal information.

    Our Verdict

    Although some discount cards have the same deep discounts as WellRx, the service overall managed to provide savings for most medications at more than 64,000 pharmacies nationwide. Its extra services helped improve our health, and we felt more confident about the services WellRx provided since it’s been running successfully for over a quarter of a century.

  • #3 SingleCare - Best for High-Cost Medications

    SingleCare helps seniors save money on prescriptions.

    Overview

    How to Sign Up: Sign up online at SingleCare’s website.

    Pharmacies: SingleCare works with over 35,000 in the United States, including Puerto Rico.

    What’s Covered: More than 10,000 prescriptions.

    If You Have Insurance: You can use your SingleCare card instead of insurance but not with it. If you have Medicare Part D, sometimes the SingleCare cost is cheaper than your copay, or Medicare won’t cover the medication. This would be a smart time to use SingleCare.

    How to Use: Use the search function on the SingleCare website to find the lowest price near you and customize the dosage and quantity. Then download, text, or email a SingleCare coupon card to yourself and bring it to the pharmacy with you.

    Savings: With SingleCare, you can save up to 80% on prescription drugs. On average, individuals save about $208 per year with SingleCare.

    What We Loved:

    • Deep Discounts: SingleCare has specifically been known to help people save big on very high-cost prescriptions. In some instances, SingleCare’s prices were even less than GoodRx.
    • User Friendly: We appreciated how user-friendly SingleCare’s site and app were, as well as the useful health and drug news and updates on their blog.

    We weren’t so keen on:

    • Limited Locations/Medications: SingleCare is limited to half the prescriptions other discount cards cover, only 35,000 pharmacies, rather than 50,000 to 70,000.
    • Fewer Medications and Pharmacies: Occasionally, pharmacies wouldn’t accept SingleCare when their website said they did. More commonly, the amount SingleCare coupons covered was a bit less than the originally stated price.

    Our Verdict

    SingleCare is great for some medications in some locations. It took some trial and error as to which of my prescriptions benefited from these discounts, but the ones that did typically saved me a lot. Be sure to make check that you live near a participating pharmacy before investing your energy in this card.

    • Final Thoughts

    With so much cash on the line, there’s not much to lose with free prescription discount cards, especially ones that don’t require any personal info. You can even keep them in your pocket or palm at all times, as most are available on mobile apps. If prescription costs are eating away at your savings, then incorporating a prescription discount card into your medication management routine is a great idea.

    Whether you use one of our recommendations or find another card using the evaluation system we mentioned earlier, don’t keep paying too much for medication. Also, check out our complete guide to prescription discount cards to learn more. Stay healthy, and enjoy your savings!

    Frequently Asked Questions

    • How do prescription discount cards make money?

      Each time you use a discount card, the pharmacy pays the card company a small fee for the referral.

    • Should I ever pay for a discount card?

      There are so many free discount cards that it usually doesn’t make sense to pay for one. Cards from big-name retailers are generally legitimate, but some of those paid discount cards have also been known to be scams. Your best bet is to avoid them.

    • What if my pharmacy refuses my prescription discount card?

      Should you experience an issue at the pharmacy, call your discount card’s customer service. GoodRx, for example, has individuals ready to help resolve these types of issues.

    • What is a human-equivalent pet prescription?

      Since some pet medications are the same as those for humans, pharmacy discount cards will sometimes help pay for these as well. The human-equivalent prescription is what you’ll need to have your veterinarian send the pharmacy, so they can fill your pet’s medication. It’s essentially the amount a human would take adjusted for weight.

    Written By
    Amie Clark

    Amie has been writing about senior care products and services for the last decade. She is particularly passionate about new technologies that help improve the quality of life for seniors and their families. Seeing her parents and grandparents age made Amie ask herself, “Would this be good enough for my loved ones?” In her spare time, Amie enjoys outdoor adventures and spontaneous road trips. Learn more about Amie here