Expanded NC Prescription Drug Benefit Unveiled
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
October 3, 2002

North Carolina unveiled an expanded drug benefit program for seniors Thursday that uses tobacco settlement money to assist tens of thousands of residents in paying for their prescriptions.

North Carolina Senior Care will pay up to $600 annually to patients 65 or over for the treatment of heart- and chronic lung-related disease as well as diabetes. About 75 percent of the state's elderly suffer from one of these ailments.

Senior Care benefits will begin Nov. 1.

"We in North Carolina are taking action to protect our seniors and to give them a little back to ensure they get the best possible health care," Gov. Mike Easley said inside the Person Street Pharmacy in downtown Raleigh . "Our health care system has to work for everybody."

A smaller program approved last year by the General Assembly cost $1.5 million, covered about 2,000 people and was limited to people living at or below the federal poverty level. Lung-related illnesses such as asthma and emphysema also weren't covered.

Now that the Health and Wellness Trust Fund has agreed to give $35 million annually for prescriptions for the next three years, the program will include patients with income up to twice the poverty level - $17,180 for a single person and $23,220 for a married couple.

Up to 150,000 senior citizens could be eligible for the program, although state officials predict from 50,000 to 100,000 patients ultimately will enroll.

Joined by older adults who stand to benefit, Easley said North Carolina couldn't wait any longer on Congress to approve a federal prescription drug plan that would be part of the Medicare system.

"We've gotten more rhetoric than action from Washington ," Easley said.

Senior Care will pay $600 of the first $1,000 of a participant's drug costs; patients are responsible for the remaining 40 percent. A $6 fee also must be paid for each prescription. People receiving Medicaid or supplemental prescription benefits aren't eligible.

The two-page application will be available at more than 1,000 pharmacies statewide, by mail or on the Internet.

A survivor of five strokes and a heart attack, Billy Lee, 70, of Raleigh said his prescription drugs cost $500 per month. Lee hopes the program will leave a little more in his Social Security check to live on.

"I hope it means a lot," said Lee, a former tennis instructor. "It will help."

State officials hope the federal government will provide more funds for the program. The state hopes to get a waiver so that Medicaid money can be used, said Carmen Hooker Odom, the state health and human services secretary.

Dick Hatch with the state AARP said prescription drugs constitute a high percentage of a senior's monthly expenses.

"It will be a wonderful benefit, but it only goes part of the way," Hatch said.

Information on Senior Care is available at (866) 226-1388.