The opportunity to buy discounted prescription drugs soon will be made available to every Lancaster County resident.

The county commissioners on Thursday announced a plan to make free discount prescription drug cards available to all county residents beginning in June.

The cards can be used by anyone — regardless of age, income or existing health care coverage — to buy prescription drugs for themselves, their pets and their farm animals.

The cards ensure the holder gets the lowest possible price charged by participating pharmacies.

"This has the potential to help everybody save a couple of dollars for their prescription medications," Commissioner Craig Lehman said. "And a couple of dollars is a couple of dollars. In this economy, every little bit helps."

Lancaster County is able to offer the program through its membership in National Association of Counties.

"It doesn't cost the taxpayers or the county anything," Commissioner Scott Martin. "When is the last time the government reached into your pocket and actually left something?"

The commissioners recently signed a contract with the association to join the 1,150 other counties across the country already taking advantage of the program.

The association started the program in 2004 through an agreement with national prescription provider CVS Caremark.

"When you go to a pharmacy to fill a prescription, you may or may not get the lowest price charged for that prescription," Lehman said. "With this card, you are guaranteed to get the lowest price charged."

Since 2004, Martin said, more than 14 million prescriptions have been filled through the program, generating a total savings in excess of $150 million.

The average savings on prescriptions over that time has been 22 percent, according to the commissioners.

"For those who don't have insurance coverage for prescription medications, the benefits of this are pretty clear," Martin said. "But even if you have a prescription plan, you can still benefit from this because maybe your plan only covers certain prescriptions."

Lehman said the commissioners learned about the program last year when they attended their first conference since being elected in November 2007.

The discount card to be distributed by the commissioners covers any and all prescriptions — including those for animals.

"Having an older pet with some medical problems, that's a nice benefit," said Dennis Stuckey, chairman of the commissioners.

The commissioners are setting up systems to distribute the discount cards and track the program's use.

"We will have measurable results provided to us on a monthly basis to see how many prescriptions are being filled and how much money is being saved," Martin said.

The tracking system will not monitor the prescriptions being bought by individual cardholders, Martin said, but will simply count the number of prescriptions bought with the cards and the money saved.

A county coordinator for the program will be appointed. That person will be a current county employee who will add this duty to the duties he or she already performs.

There is no enrollment fee to join the program nor is there an application to fill out.

Cards will be made available at various distribution points — which have yet to be selected — in the county.

Holders can use the card at any of the 91 pharmacies in the county — or the more than 59,000 nationwide — that are part of the NaCo/CVS Caremark network.

And although the company is an arm of CVS Pharmacies, the network includes more than just CVS stores.

"It's my understanding most of the major pharmacies are enrolled," Lehman said. "And I think any pharmacy can join."

Residents can call (877) 321-2652 to find participating pharmacies.

E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com