Employers are reacting to a disturbing trend. As most employer-sponsored health plans have raised co-payments sharply for drugs in recent years, employer drug spending has slowed. But total health care spending by employers has nonetheless continued to rise: 7.7 percent last year, or more than double the general inflation rate, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The free drug programs are being adopted in hopes of countering the rising costs, taking their place alongside other steps by some employers that have included opening or expanding health clinics in their factories and offices, and offering checkups and medicines at no cost or for a modest co-payment.

Given the millions of Americans who suffer from heart disease, depression, asthma or diabetes — about one in four working-age adults — the movement toward free drugs and preventive care has the potential to help many people, said Craig Dolezal, a health care specialist at Hewitt Associates, a consulting firm.

Co-payments of $10 to $20 a prescription have become typical, while the co-pay for some expensive drugs can be $50 or more for a month’s supply. The new employer programs are waiving those fees.

For people with serious health problems, free medicine is an incentive not only to stay with their prescribed regimens, but also to keep in touch with nurses and pharmacists who monitor changes in their weight, blood pressure and other vital signs.

At the Mohawk Industries carpet factory in Dublin, Ga., about 200 of the 750 employees signed up for free blood pressure and heart drugs last summer after the company held meetings to describe the benefits of lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.

Alan Christianson, Mohawk’s benefits administrator, said that the company recognized a few years ago that it could eventually face health costs so high that employees could not afford insurance. “We felt we had to do something about it,” he said.

Peggy Cauley, 36, who supervises a customer service unit at Mohawk’s factory, said she was 30 pounds overweight and had spent $40 a month on blood pressure and heart drugs before she started the program.