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March 15, 2005
The New York State legislature will
vote in the coming weeks on Assembly bill A. 3074 and Senate bill S. 1357 to
extend the state's "EPIC" pharmacy assistance program---which currently
covers only limited income persons over age 65 who are somewhat "too rich"
for Medicaid ---to limited income disabled persons too, including those
disabled who are still in their two year waiting periods for Medicare.
New York, like over 20 states, uses its own funds to run a state pharmacy
assistance program (SPAP) for limited income aged persons but it originally
failed to also cover the disabled. The EPIC program covers almost all
FDA-licensed drugs and has maximum income eligibility levels around $30,000
yearly for one person, with higher co-pays for higher income clients.
Recently, EPIC has made tentative arrangements to coordinate its benefits
(and thus help patients with cost-sharing and the range of covered drugs)
with the Medicare Part D prescription benefits that begin on January 1,
2006. It is therefore all the more important now to extend both coverages to
both aged and disabled Medicare patients---and, because the the two year
waiting period the disabled face before they can even get Medicare to begin
with at all, to give them at least the EPIC drug coverage during the waiting
period.
The website
www.consumersunion.org , under the "Take Action" logo and then the
"State Action Alert" heading offers a webpage on the issue that includes
assistance in contacting legislators. |
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