Rx Drug discount cards available in Albany County

ALBANY

Check your mailbox. This week each of the 128,000 households in Albany County will receive the ProAct card. It entitles holders to between 20 and 70 percent off their prescription drugs regardless of their income level or insurance status.

If you don't get one of these in the mail you can pick it up at the county office building or even your pharmacy.

All prescription medications are covered at a discounted rate.

ProAct calls itself a pharmacy benefit management company. What it does is negotiate drug rates with individual pharmacies that then become a part of their network.

"Think of it like a Price Chopper card. Why do they give a card? Because they want people to go to Price Chopper. You go, you get a discount. It's about driving people to the pharmacy. All pharmacies want people to come. So they participate. It's a win, win for all," county legislator Shawn Morse explained.

Taxpayer dollars are not subsidizing the program and the hope is the uninsured will use it the most.

"This is a benefit to the people who don't have anything. It gives them an opportunity to get dramatically discounted prescription drugs," County Executive Michael Breslin said.

Even if you do have insurance you are eligible to use the free card.

"You can come with your coverage card and your ProAct card and ask the pharmacist, 'Which is the better deal for me?' and take it," Breslin said.

There isn't an upper or lower age limit on the card either. So it should work as a safety net for those without insurance who don't qualify for state programs like Healthy New York or the federal government's Medicare.

"It's an opportunity for people to get prescriptions filled they may not have gotten filled before," said John McDonald of Marra's Pharmacy in Cohoes

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