Older Fla. residents to get discounts with drug card



The state today introduced a new prescription drug savings card for uninsured, low-income Floridians, adults older than 60 and Medicare beneficiaries whose annual drug coverage has run out.

Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, Department of Elder Affairs Secretary Doug Beach and State Surgeon General Ana Viamonte Ros visited Webb’s Fort Myers Prescription Shop, an independent pharmacy, as part of a statewide tour to spread the news.

It’s the latest discount plan to hit consumers: Lee County has had a drug discount card for some time, and other private companies offer similar programs. Additionally, retailers such as Wal-Mart offer $4 generic drugs and Publix gives away some antibiotics for free, giving cost-conscious consumers a growing number of options.

The Florida Discount Drug Card, modeled after an Ohio program, is the first state-sponsored card. So far, 3,000 pharmacies have agreed to take it.

“Quality of life is frequently defined by a person’s health,” Kottkamp said.

Nearly 4 million Floridians have no health insurance, Kottkamp said. The card offers discounts ranging from 5 percent to 42 percent off of the average retail price.

“This will help lower drug costs for those who need it most,” he said.

Residents qualify for the card if:

• They are 60 or older with no prescription drug coverage or in the Medicare prescription drug coverage cap, also referred to as the “doughnut hole.” That’s the period of time in which patients hit their coverage limits and must pay out of pocket until the end of the year, or until they spend a predetermined amount of their own money — $3,850 in 2007. Medicare resumes paying after that. For these older residents, there are no income eligibility rules.

• They are younger than 60, uninsured, and have incomes of less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level. That amounts to $30,636 for an individual, $41,076 for a family of two and $61,956 for a family of four.

The program uses the state’s potential volume of patients to negotiate lower costs. The program didn’t cost the state anything to establish, Beach said.

Kottkamp said state officials were working on other health care access problems, such as the growing number of uninsured Floridians and Medicaid-related issues. He would not delve into details during today.

How much the cards help remains to be seen.

“How do I feel about this? I don’t know yet,” said Lisa Lawrence, a pharmacist whose husband owns the store at which the announcement was made.

Lawrence said seniors in the doughnut hole will still have to pay the same out-of-pocket totals before Medicare resumes covering their drugs. The discount plan might simply prolong that doughnut hole period.

But many seniors will never get out of that hole because their out-of-pocket spending will never reach the $3,850 cap. The cards will help lower their payments until the calendar year changes and their coverage starts fresh.

“Anything to help people in the doughnut hole is a big deal,” said Marilyn Gregory, a counselor for the state’s Serving the Health Insurance Needs of Elders, or SHINE program.