In an effort to ease the burden senior citizens face when paying for high-priced prescription medicines, Gov. Paul Cellucci and several other Massachusetts legislators yesterday unveiled a new prescription drug insurance plan.
“For the first time in the history of the Commonwealth, senior citizens can be assured they will be taken care of when it comes to their prescription drugs,” said Senate President Thomas Birmingham (D-Suffolk).
Prescription Advantage is a new bipartisan program that covers the costs of prescription drugs for all residents 65 and over and some younger residents with qualified disabilities.
The program, which took effect yesterday, covers the full cost of a participant’s prescription drugs once he or she has spent $2,000 or 10 percent of his or her annual income out of pocket. The plan includes co-payments.
Although there are premiums, deductibles and co-payments involved in Prescription Advantage, those prices are graduated, depending on annual gross income. Senior citizens in the lowest income bracket of the plan pay no premium.
Birmingham and Speaker of the House Thomas Finneran (D-Suffolk) stressed that Massachusetts is the first state in the nation to develop a comprehensive prescription drug plan.
“This is an issue that has been talked about in Washington, and we in Massachusetts can stand with pride and celebrate our accomplishment. We stopped talking about it and we did something,” Birmingham said.
Both Cellucci and Finneran expressed hope that Congress will now consider Massachusetts a model for a national program.
“The governor made a reference to Congress looking to Massachusetts, trying to mimic and perhaps learn from the experience here, and we certainly hope they do that as they come to grips with this challenging public policy problem,” Finneran said.
The program is sponsored by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs, which plans to rigorously promote participation in the insurance plan. They plan to partner with senior citizens organizations such as the American Association of Retired Persons and will launch several television commercials in May.
“The Executive Office of Elder Affairs is embarking on an ambitious campaign to gain awareness of and enrollment in Prescription Advantage,” said Lillian Glickman, Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs.
AARP spokeswoman Debbie Banda said the group is happy about the new program and hopes it will make the lives of senior citizens a little easier.
“The Prescription Advantage program has the potential to ease the pain and the suffering and the downright fear that a lot of older Americans feel when they try to figure out how to pay for their prescription drugs,” Banda said.
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