Basic Needs Ministry - Medical Services

N.C.'s 58 Participating Counties 2008

The FREE Card for Discount Prescription Drugs Program
Basic Needs Ministry distributes the Wake County NACo* Card
*National Association of County Officials (NACo)
Residents save $332,326.98 in first 4 months of card use!
  43. Polk County*
  57. Wilson County
*May not be a NACo member.

"Since the October 1, 2007 implementation of the NACo prescription drug card program, Wake County residents have saved a total of $332,326.98 through January 31, 2008.  The savings have steadily increased since the October kickoff, and in January alone, Wake County residents saved $114,131.32 (an average of 24% savings per prescription) using this program."

The NACo card - 10-40% discounts starting immediately

The ease of the Prescription Drug Discount Card Program is its biggest selling point. There are no forms for citizens to fill out and no maintenance is required on behalf of the county. There is no cost to counties participating in the program or citizens using the discount card. Discount cards are sent to participating counties for distribution. The cards may be used by all county residents and for their pets, regardless of age, income or existing health coverage. A national network of almost 60,000 participating retail pharmacies will honor the discount card. NOTE: Johnston County's Carroll Pharmacy told the county manager and health leaders that it will not accept any cards.

"One year into the program, Bay County, Florida, residents have saved more than $400,000 using prescription discount cards." "Rock County, Wisconsin, filled 101 prescriptions with the card in July and by January was filling 909." "We rec'd our first month usage summary for the month of May 2006.  We had 40 residents filling a total of 70 scripts, showing a savings of $770.48 for our residents in St. James Parish, Louisiana.  This is an average of 26.44% savings per script."

For more information: www.naco.org

When to use the NACo card

  1. When a person is without insurance, he can use the NACo card and get his prescription drugs for a 10-40% discount at almost 60,000 pharmacies in the United States.
  2. When a person on Medicare goes into the doughnut hole and is dropped from prescription drug coverage, he can use the NACo card and get his prescription drugs for a 10-40% discount at almost 60,000 pharmacies in the United States.
  3. When a person's pet needs a prescription drug available from a participating pharmacy, he can use the NACo card and get his pet's prescription drug for a 10-40% discount at almost 60,000 pharmacies in the United States.
  4. When a person is underinsured and paying too much in co-pays, he might be able to lower some of his prescription drug costs by using the card. State employees, who use the State Medical Plan with Medco administering the prescription benefits, have been dropping their 3-month generic copays from $30 to $23.31 at some pharmacies by using the card.
  5. When a person is underinsured, because his insurer dropped coverage on some of his prescription drugs, he can use the NACo card and get his prescription drugs for a 10-40% discount at almost 60,000 pharmacies in the United States.

When you find another way to use the card, let us know.

Where to get the NACo card

Wake County distributes the cards at county libraries, county government buildings, most pharmacies in the county, and Basic Needs Ministry.

What can Johnston County residents do to get the card?

Call your Johnston County Commissioner and County Manager and ask, "When is the NACo Prescription Drug Discount Program coming?" Ask, "Why does Johnston County still have over 25,000 residents without any medical insurance?" Ask, "What is holding up a free medical benefit program, when No New Taxes are needed?"

Help us provide a card for the 25,000 residents of Johnston who have no drug coverage and the thousands of others on the State Medical Plan and other insurance plans, which cut off access to certain drugs and classes of drugs to save money. Let's work to convince Johnston's commissioners to make the NACo card a free county benefit. If the commissioners brought the program to the county, they could have stacks of co-branded cards sitting in pharmacies, libraries, social service agencies, etc. for people to pick up and use. For more information, call Caremark toll-free at 1-877-673-3688. Join us - 18,000,000 people already use this card at almost 60,000 pharmacies nationally.