By PAM ADAMS | Journal Star | Jun 22, 2012 mmm,
1PEORIA — While smokers are stockpiling cigarettes before a $1 tax increase takes effect, almost 200,000 Illinois senior citizens, people with disabilities, and people with AIDS who rely on Illinois Cares Rx are being urged to stock up on prescription drugs before the program ends June 30.
{photo: Kathryn Williams of Peoria takes more than a dozen different medications, but her premium and co-pays will go up dramatically when Illinois Cares Rx ends June 30}
Some advocates and pharmacists suggest they get a 90-day supply, if possible, because once the program ends, they may not be able to afford what are, in many cases, life-saving medications.
"We need to warn these people," said Mike Minesinger, pharmacist and owner o`f Alwan's Pharmacy in West Peoria. "I don't think people realize it's going to be awful, just awful. They're going to find out they've got big insurance premiums to pay and their co-pays are going to go way up."
Minesinger said he has seen emails from colleagues encouraging people to stock up on prescription drugs.
Telephones have been ringing off the hook at Central Illinois Agency on Aging since earlier this week, according to staff, when people started receiving termination letters from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
Central Illinois Agency on Aging has set itself up as a local warning system, in a sense, by organizing public information meetings next week and a workshop in July, primarily on alternatives for assistance.
The death of Illinois Cares Rx is a result of Illinois lawmakers major overhaul of the state's Medicaid program. Hardly any aspect of medical care for the state's poorest citizens escaped the cuts. The $1.6 billion in cuts, along with an estimated $700 million from the cigarette tax and other revenue-enhancing measures, are expected to cover the $2.7 billion hole in the state's Medicaid budget.
Mike Claffey, a spokesman for Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, said the cuts were unfortunate but necessary. The cuts and reforms enabled the state to preserve health-care benefits for poor children and many of the state's poorest adults.
"While the department certainly understands the concerns that are being voiced, inaction would have led to the collapse of our Medicaid system," he said.
Eliminating Illinois Cares Rx is expected to save $72 million. Advocates for senior citizens predict any savings will be offset by rising costs in other areas.
People in the Illinois Cares Rx program - whether on Medicare or Medicaid, whether they had prescription drug coverage or not - had been accustomed to paying as little as $5 for generic prescriptions, $10 for brand names. Those costs could jump substantially July 1 without the Illinois Cares Rx program to subsidize co-pays and insurance costs.
The program subsidized insurance costs for people whose Medicare Part D prescription drug plans had a monthly premium. When Illinois Cares Rx ends, they could lose the insurance if they don't pay the premium.
One problem, according to Minesinger and others, is many people who have prescription drug plans don't realize Illinois Cares Rx pays the premium costs. They think they're on Humana, AARP's insurance plan or other plans.
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services does not have county-by-county breakdowns on the numbers in the program or figures on the most common prescription drugs used by people in the Illinois Cares Rx program. But Thomas, of Central Illinois Agency on Aging, has estimated more than 10,000 senior citizens in central Illinois could be affected.
Thomas is concerned that many people could end up with life-threatening conditions soon after July 1 because they've run out of drugs such as insulin or cancer medications.
"The ones you can't go without," she said.
The stakes are just that high for Kathryn Williams, 65, of Peoria.
With Illinois Cares Rx, Williams spends about $44 a month for medications, including an insulin supply for diabetes. An expensive, twice-a-month injection to keep her kidneys performing is covered by a hospital assistance program.
She is not in a Medicare prescription coverage plan now, but she's looking into plans that could possibly lower her costs once Illinois Cares Rx ends.
Whatever she finds, one thing is clear: It will be much more than $44 a month. It will probably be thousands of dollars more a year she can't afford on a Social Security Disability income, particularly when she considers the expense of the infamous Medicare "doughnut hole" - a gap in coverage for prescription drugs - which Illinois Cares Rx covered .
"It's going to be a hardship," she said of the choices she faces. "Get medications, don't get medications. Pay this, don't pay that."
@ http://www.pjstar.com/news/x345283476/End-of-prescription-drug-program-will-be-costly-for-seniors-disabled
No comments:
Post a Comment