People who have rare medical conditions can get help with drugs.

Know patients who need help paying for medication? Then you should know the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

Since 1987, NORD has administered programs to assist uninsured or under-insured individuals in securing life-saving or life-sustaining medications, according to the organization’s Web site, rarediseases.org. In addition to the 50 million Americans who have no health insurance, an increasing number of insured individuals have policies that do not reimburse for prescription drugs. Others have policies with low annual caps on prescription-drug payments, NORD said.

NORD works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to ensure that certain vital medications are available to those individuals whose income is too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low to pay for their prescribed medications.