Tag Archives for Pharmaceuticals

Advocacy Groups Support Bills Making Pharmaceutical Drugs More Affordable

Published in the Pawtucket Times on April 21, 2003

The Gray Panthers have been around the Ocean State since 1975.

Richard Bidwell, state coordinator of the Rhode Island Gray Panthers, which represents 400 members state-wide, said his group has fought on behalf of seniors and disable persons on many aging and consumer-related issues.

He recalled one legislative victory that enabled seniors and disabled persons to use a special RIPTA bus pass and ride free during off-peak hours. Later the Gray Panthers would successfully expand this use to all times.

As state coordinator, Bidwell has been involved in lobbying the Rhode Island General Assembly on behalf of the state’s growing senior population for more than 14 years. Last year, the Gray Panthers coordinated their efforts with senior advocacy groups to organize the Senior Agenda Consortium.

This year, the Consortium turns its attention to four legislative proposals that will assist seniors in paying for costly pharmaceuticals.

“We’re trying to get them out of committee with favorable votes,” Bidwell told All About Seniors.

The group has locked horns wit Blue Chip in an attempt to lower prescription drug prices for older beneficiaries who have signed up for that health plan.

S 566, introduced by Sen. James Sheehan (D-North Kingston) would require health plans, such as Blue Chip, to pass on their drug discounts to their members. Blule Chip’s highest premium (costing $148 a month) allows senior beneficiaries to purchase up to $ 1,000 worth of brand-name drugs a year, being charged only a $ 25 co-pay for reach prescription.

This premium also allows a person to purchase up to $ 5,000 in generic drugs, with an $ 8 co-pay charged for each prescription.

Bidwell said that with each purchase of a prescription, Blue Chip subtracts the retail price rather than the actual contracted lower price allowed by the insurance company for the purchase.

As a result,” People are being charged too much,” Bidwell said. “The $ 1,000 coverage is disappearing too quickly with the purchase of each prescription drug.

“Our legislation allows Blue Chip to subtract only the contracted actual price of the prescription rather than the much higher retail price.”

“At press time, the Gray Panthers are attempting to find a House sponsor for this legislation.

A related bill, H 5237, sponsored by Rep. Peter Ginaitt (D-Warwick) and S 374, sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Roberts (D-Cranston), would allow a person eligible to participate in the Rhode Island Pharmaceutical Assistance to the Elderly Program (RIPAE), who also has prescription drug coverage through a health plan, to use RIPAE to pay for an individual prescription drug once they reach a maximum level of coverage for that drug.  Currently access to RIPAE until he or she uses all of the brand and generic allowance by Blue Chip.

Meanwhile, Bidwell noted that the Gray Panthers are also pushing H 5239, sponsored by Sen. Mary Ellen Goodwin (D-Providence), for expanding RIPAE to allow persons ages 55 to  61 on Social Security Disability Insurance to receive RIPAE co-payments at the same level as Ocean State seniors.

Finally, another legislative proposal, H 5478, sponsored by Rep. Fausto Anguilla (D-Bristol-Warren) and S 299, sponsored by Sen. Rhode Perry (D-Providence), would allow Rhode Island residents to buy prescription drug from Canadian pharmacies, where they are routinely cheaper.

Susan Sweet, an elder rights advocate consultant to non-profit groups and a member of the Senior Agenda Consortium, has called for the passage of these bills, which are key to creating a “responsive and less costly” long-term care system.

“Pharmaceutical drugs may be expensive, but they are certainly less expensive than hospitalization, nursing home care, and other medical services required as a result o a senior not having or taking the prescribed medication,” said Sweet.

“It is primarily the advances in pharmaceutical therapy that have enabled seniors to live longer and healthier lives. By permitting more access for seniors and persons with disabilities to afford their prescriptions, state policy makers can save people’s lives and ultimately save taxpayer money by preventing more costly interventions,” added Sweet.

At the AARP gubernatorial debate, seniors called for state government intervention in putting the brakes of rising pharmaceutical costs.

The calls for action continue to grow. During this legislative session, the Gray Panthers, AARP, the RI Commission on Aging, along with the Forum on Aging and the Senior Agenda Consortium, have made this legislative issue a high priority.

It is time for Gov. Don Carcieri and the leadership of the General Assembly to tackle this senior issue head-on and allocate the necessary state funds to help make prescription drugs more affordable for Rhode Island seniors and persons with disabilities.

Because of the growing costs of medication, a large number of seniors cannot afford to fill their prescriptions, many do not event take their prescriptions as directed by their physicians.”  Noncompliance in taking medications or not taking them at all can result in unnecessary hospitalization, premature admission to nursing facilities, and untimely death.

Even with the state’s looming budget deficit, enabling seniors to afford the purchase of needed pharmaceutical drugs will hopefully be placed on the General Assembly’s short list of bills that must be enacted this legislative session.

Call Senate President Bill Irons at 401-222-2447 and House Speaker Bill Murphy at 401- 222-2466 to tell them of your concerns about this issue and how   the high cost of prescription drugs hits you in your pocketbook.

Urge these key lawmakers to pass legislation that makes pharmaceuticals more affordable to all seniors and persons with disabilities

Bipartisan Support Key for Passage of Aging Proposals

Published in Pawtucket Times on March 19, 2001

The operative word in national legislative circles these days in bipartisianship.

Both sides of the political aisle working together will have to be part of the picture if the long-term care field is going to see any significant legislative changes, policy sources indicate.

Why is that so? In the Senate, “there’s a 50-50 split between the two major political parties,” notes Bill Benson, President of Benson Consulting Group, a Maryland-based organization. What’s more, the division “has resulted in an unprecedented agreement between Senate Democrats and Republicans to share power,” according to Benson, a former top official with the U.S. Administration on Aging.

Democrats and Republicans alike have been following the failing health of Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, 98, of South Carolina.

If Thurmond retires or dies before the end of this term in 2002, it’s likely that his state’s Democratic governor would appoint a Democrat, a move that would shift the majority in the Senate to the Democratic Party.

Yet, Benson says that any legislative proposal would still need bipartisan support to get out of the Senate. “To get a Republican proposal enacted, you will either have to get lots of Democrats to cross party lines, or bring in Vice President Cheney to be a tie breaker,” he noted.

Meanwhile, in the House, the Republican majority holds but a razor thin margin.

“Like in the Senate, if both parties don’t work together in the House, you’re looking at legislative gridlock,” he says.

Benson notes that the Bush Administration is also moving to stall the lengthy regulatory and administrative actions taken by Clinton toward the end of his administration.

One such item that is temporarily halted is Clinton’s guidelines for managed care organizations that serve Medicare beneficiaries.

President Bush campaigned on Medicare reform and wants to bring his proposal to Congress.

His proposal provides a private sector alternative to traditional fee-for-service Medicare by offering block grants to states to help seniors pay for their pharmaceuticals.

This approach may be derailed by the Democratic Party, which added to its seats in Congress during the recent election, Benson explains.

He notes that Senator Charles Grassley (IA), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has declared that he will not push Bush’s Medicare or prescription drug plans because they lack votes for passage.

Yet, Benson also predicts that the fact that Congress is closely divided increases the chance that something will be done about providing prescription drug coverage to seniors through Medicare. Otherwise, Benson adds, Medicare reform will amount to nothing more than talk this year.

Meanwhile, Robert Greenwood, American Health Care Association for Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA), says that bold, revolutionary proposals won’t be forthcoming from the nation’s evenly divided Congress.

Instead, legislators will take an incremental approach toward program development.

“A long term care agenda has not emerged yet,” Greenwood observes. “We don’t even have an administrator for the Health Care Financing Administration, the agency that manages the Medicaid program.”

Greenwood says, in the long run,” We’re hopeful that the Bush Administration will take seriously its responsibility to provide long-term care providers with the needed resources to provide quality of care and to fund a regulatory system that allows providers to do their job while still protecting vulnerable residents.”