What’s the best way to save money on medications? Get them for free, of course.
Several pharmacy chains have discontinued their free medication programs in recent years, but a few still offer them. Through these programs, you can get commonly used generic drugs or supplements for $0.
You generally need only a doctor’s prescription to obtain these drugs for free.
Granted, the freebie may be a lure designed to get you to buy other things at the pharmacy or associated grocery store while picking up your free meds. Or, it might be an attempt to get you to transfer other not-free medications you take to the pharmacy. But there is no real catch here.
In some cases, a membership is required, but depending on your prescriptions, the money you save by getting medications for free might exceed the cost of the membership fee.
See for yourself: Following are grocery store chains that still offer free prescription drug programs, as well as chains that offer medication prices that are about as close to free as you can get.
1. Good Neighbor Pharmacy
Through its Free Vitamin Program, this chain offers free:
- Prenatal vitamins
- Multivitamins for children
- Multivitamins for adults and seniors
Good Neighbor Pharmacy has locations across the country.
2. Price Chopper
Through this grocery store pharmacy’s Diabetes AdvantEdge Program, the following are free:
- Several diabetes medications
- Glucose meter
- Lancet device and lancets
Price Chopper has locations primarily in the Northeast.
3. Sam’s Club
Unlike Good Neighbor and Price Chopper, Sam's Club doesn’t offer free meds to just anyone. But if you happen to already have a Sam’s Club Plus membership — which is the chain’s more expensive membership — know that there are 10 generic medications that you can essentially get for free at Sam’s Club pharmacies.
Not even the beloved competitor wholesale chain Costco offers such a perk.
Ways to get prescriptions for as close to free as possible
Free medication programs have grown scarce in recent years. For example, in 2022, Publix ended its program — which for 15 years offered certain antibiotics and maintenance medications for free. In 2020, Meijer stopped offering the diabetes medication metformin and cholesterol medication atorvastatin (generic Lipitor) for free.
But while it might be tougher than ever to find medications for free, it’s arguably easier than ever to get them pretty darn cheaply — if you know where to look.
If you live near a Kroger or one of the many other Kroger Co.-owned grocery stores, the Kroger Rx Savings Club boasts savings of as much as 85%. You have to pay to join, but members can buy certain medications for only $3 for a 30-day supply or $6 for a 90-day supply, and several prescriptions are completely free.
Amazon also offers exclusive prescription discounts to Prime members.
Several other pharmacy chains offer many generic medications for as little as $3.33 a month for a 90-day supply — with no need to pay to join a program like that of Kroger or Amazon. See “5 Pharmacies That Offer Prescriptions for $4 a Month — or Less.”
And then there are discount pharmacies like Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company that cut out middlemen and negotiate prices directly with drug manufacturers, enabling them to offer customers ultra-low prices.
Even if you don’t have health insurance, you can take advantage of any of the aforementioned options. And if you do have insurance, note that it might be cheaper for you to buy some or all of your prescriptions through one of these options — which is to say they offer prices that often are lower than insurance copays.
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