Right prescription to overhaul PACE
Gov. Rendell last week proposed changing the state’s prescription drug program for senior citizens so that 300,000 more would be eligible for some help. While the gesture is welcome, action is vital. For too many years Pennsylvania’s seniors have heard far too many promises during campaigns that have proved hollow. The last serious attempt to expand PACE and PACENET programs was sidelined over concerns that the funding source, the Pennsylvania Lottery, was slipping far below projections. That has since changed. With the added midday drawing of the Daily Number and the Big 4 and with Pennsylvania joining the Powerball drawing, fortunes have turned.
The governor proposes using the lottery money, negotiating larger rebates from drug manufacturers and placing restriction on doctors to write scripts for cheaper drugs before jumping to higher classes to pay for the expansion. With these provisions, Rendell figures income eligibility for the PACE program, which has no deductible, could increase from $14,500 for individuals and from $17,200 to $17,700 for married couples. This will pick up those seniors knocked from the program because of modest Social Security increases.
Those who stand to benefit the most are seniors, especially married couples, who are cut off from the PACENET program, which provides benefits after a $500 deductible. The guidelines would change from $17,000 to $22,500 for individuals and from $20,200 to $30,500 for couples. This increase could negate the penalty for married couples where both partners worked and are eligible for pensions. The current $3,000 difference, a stingy amount on the state’s part, can easily be spent in just a couple months by two people with a handful of prescriptions for high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis.
There will be those who will attempt to water down this proposal by planting doubts as to whether the state can handle 300,000 more participants. While that is the estimate of the number of eligible participants, a more likely number of those who will apply is around 100,000. Even if 300,000 more are added to the program, the numbers will barely budge above the 500,000 enrolled in the late 1980s.
Pennsylvania has failed to keep pace in raising income eligibility along with the cost of living so that its seniors have access to affordable medication. The governor’s proposal rectifies this wrong; lawmakers need to support it.