A national program designed to help fill in one of the major gaps in health care by providing people with discount prescription cards will soon be launched in Jackson County.

County Judge Harrison Stafford II said the county will offer the National Association of Counties, NACo, prescription drug discount card program starting Tuesday. The cards, free to county residents, are already being distributed through the county treasurer's office.

"We're also planning on distributing the cards through different community organizations," the judge said. "We want to get them out to the people."

The cards are offered to residents of participating counties at no cost to the individual or the county, NACo director of membership marketing Andrew Goldschmidt said. The only qualification is that a person must be a resident of the participating county where the card is issued.

"Actually, it is designed for those people who are uninsured or underinsured," Goldschmidt said. "If you have existing insurance coverage or discount prescription program, our card can't be used to go with those existing discounts. But it can be used to cover certain prescriptions that might not be covered by your existing plan. So really, anybody is eligible. There are no fees, no forms, no age limitations and no income restrictions on participating. In addition, the entire family is covered with just one card and virtually all commonly prescribed medicine is covered."

And when Goldschmidt says the entire family, he means it.

"It can also be used to purchase certain pet medications," he said. "There is about a 70 percent overlap but it means going through a pharmacy rather than your veterinarian. Actually, the Milwaukee Zoo was looking at the program, and I thought about the size of pill they would need for an elephant. But it can also work for dogs and cats."

And the savings for people or pets can be significant. The average savings is about 20 percent, according to a NACo information sheet. The savings generally range from 13 to 34 percent, depending on the medication, and consumers may save up to 50 percent on mail-order purchases.

An example of the savings for counties already in the program is Lake County, Ill., which joined in February 2005. A total of 26,271 prescriptions have been filled with a savings of $269,069 with the average savings being 18 percent. The county has a population of 644,356 with 115,000 cards distributed, according to a NACo Web conference held June 22.

In Nebraska, there are 34 participating counties with 4,901 prescriptions filled in May 2006. The total savings for the month was $54,041 with 2,353 total participants.

While Stafford is covered by an existing plan through his county employee insurance, one of the selling points of the program was that the NACo provider for the program, Caremark Rx Inc. of Nashville, is also the company that provides the discount prescription service through the county's policy.

Goldschmidt said it was no accident that the provider is a nationally recognized Fortune 500 company.

"We used three criteria in selecting which company we would work with," he said. "The first was price. Number two was ease of use and understanding, and the third was having a company that already had a pharmacy network in place."

"This is not corporate charity," Goldschmidt added. "The provider collects a small transaction fee from the participating pharmacies and from the drug manufacturers. We worked hard on this and I think kudos should go to Caremark for its interest in participating in such a public-private venture."

Goldschmidt said NACo has been developing the program since 2001 when several of its members approached them about offering such a benefit.

"We went out for requests for proposals and then had two committees review the proposals and develop a list of finalists who were interviewed," he said. "When that was completed, we started a pilot program in 17 counties that ran from November 2004 through May 2005. In the middle of 2005 we made it available to all member counties and we've already got 399 participating counties with another 480 that are considering the program. That's heavy growth."

Since the program started, Goldschmidt said there have been counties that have joined the organization simply to take advantage of the prescription program. He also predicts continued exponential growth.

"I think that as people in county government become aware of the program they'll see it as a no-brainer," he said. "There have been some counties who have join NACo just for the opportunity to offer this to their residents."

For counties that are considering participation, Goldschmidt said the average start-up time is eight to 10 weeks.

"After a county applies, the CEO of NACo and CEO of Caremark have to sign the contract," he said. "Then we have to get the cards printed and shipped to the county, and they have to set up distribution."