Medica Program Could Cut Down Your Grocery Bills
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Saving money is getting easier for 200,000 Minnesota families. Medica is rolling out a new program Monday that helps people save money and eat healthier.
The program is called "healthy savings."
Each week, a new list of healthy foods will go on sale. But you don't have to clip coupons to get the deals. The specials will be listed online, and change every week.
Medica members can load up on the goods and Cub, Rainbow, Lunds and Byerly's. At check out, they swipe the card and automatically get the savings.
"The future of health care is really engaging people where they are," Medica's John Naylor said. "I think this is one element. We all know that we need to live healthier lives. Hopefully people don't need access to health care. What we can do to help them lead healthier lives, we are very focused on that. And this is just one aspect of that."
The determination for what constitutes a healthy food comes from an algorithm; foods get positive points for things like nutrients, and negative points for things like added sugar, sodium. Only the top 30 percent of foods end up on the list.
Here are some examples of food savings:
-- Land O' Lakes gallon of milk, save $0.75
-- Old Orchard juice, save $1.00 when you buy 2
-- Dreamfields pasta, save $1.00
-- Parkers Farm salsa, save $1.00
-- Post cereal, save $1.00 when you buy 2
-- Lean Cuisine frozen meals, save $1.00
