I rarely need medication, so I wasn’t prepared for the price the first time I had a prescription to fill after signing up for my $5,000-deductible health-insurance plan.
Co-payment for a tiny bottle of eye drops: $94. Ouch. And I mean the bill, not the eye drops.
United Way of Miami-Dade has partnered with a service called FamilyWize to provide prescription discount cards that may save money for some South Floridians. It’s available whether you don’t have insurance or your policy doesn’t cover your medications, and is good at more than 500 Miami-Dade pharmacies.
You can print the card at www.unitedwaymiami.org/files/prescription_discount_card.pdf. A version that’s good nationwide is available at www.familyrg.
Broward County’s United Way provides a prescription discount card through the National Association of Counties that can be printed at www2.caremark.com/naco/index.htm.
The FamilyWize and Caremark sites both let you search to see how much the drug you need would cost with the cards. They would not, unfortunately, have saved me any money on my high-priced eye drops.
Publix has a better deal for those who take metformin for diabetes: free medications. Just bring in your prescription. The store also has online resources for diabetes management.
Here’s another freebie: The Florida Blue health plans (also known as Miami-Dade Blue), one of the lowest-cost insurance options for South Floridians, offer free health screenings to the public the second Saturday of each month. Call 1-877-352-5830 for details about screenings at two sites, 8895 SW 136th St., Miami, and Pembroke Lakes Square Shopping Center, 221 Hiatus Rd., Pembroke Pines.
