Thursday, October 16, 2003

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau Chief

HARRISBURG -- Legislation to make 110,000 more low-income senior citizens eligible for discounted prescription drugs has taken a major step forward.

The state Senate's Committee on Aging and Youth unanimously approved the bill yesterday and sent it on to the full Senate, where committee leaders expect approval by early November. It has already been approved by the state House, and Gov. Ed Rendell has said he'll sign it.

The measure, which would take effect Jan. 1, would increase income limits for low-income people who are covered under the Pharmaceutical Assistance Contract for the Elderly and a companion program called PACENET. The prime sponsor of the bill is state Rep. Patricia Vance, R-Cumberland.

"This bill is long overdue and will be a tremendous benefit to seniors," said Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, who chairs the aging and youth panel. "I'm glad the Legislature has come together in a bipartisan way and put this prescription drug issue at the forefront."

Increasing the income limits for people under the programs can now can be done "without spending any tax money, because of an increase in revenues from Powerball and other state lottery programs," said Kukovich.

Rendell urged the Legislature last spring to make changes in the income limits as well as in the co-payments and deductibles under the programs. The state House approved the changes in June, and groups representing senior citizens have held rallies at the Capitol, criticizing the delay in the Senate.

Some Republican senators held off action because Congress has long been debating changes in the federal Medicare health program for the elderly, and state officials didn't want to change PACE in a way that would conflict with Medicare provisions. Orie said the prescription drug changes in the bill approved yesterday won't pose any conflicts.

PACE was enacted in 1984 to make prescription drugs affordable for low-income elderly individuals. They are charged $6 for each prescription, a co-pay amount that will rise to $8 under the new bill. Currently the annual income limits for a PACE participant are $14,000 a year for a single person and $17,200 for married couples. Those income limits would rise slightly under the new bill -- to $14,500 for singles and $17,700 for couples.

The bigger expansion would occur in PACENET, which was enacted in 1996 to cover seniors with slightly higher annual incomes.

The current income limit of $17,000 a year for singles in PACENET would rise to $22,500 under the bill. The limit for couples, now $20,200, would rise to $30,500. All together, Kukovich estimated that 110,000 more people would be eligible under the expanded program.

Until the Powerball game began about a year ago, the state didn't have the funding to make the additional 110,000 people eligible, Kukovich added.

With Social Security increases in recent years and other income sources rising gradually over the years for senior citizens, many had been priced out of the drug prescription programs.

"People are being knocked off PACE and PACENET because of increasing Social Security cost-of-living benefits," said Jean Friday of Belle Vernon, a spokeswoman for the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees, who has been here pushing for the improved drug programs.

While seniors' incomes had been increasing only 1 or 2 percent a year, drug prices have been steadily escalating, as much as 10 to 15 percent a year, making it much more difficult for many seniors to get their medicines, Friday said.

Another key change in the new bill is how co-payments will work. For PACENET members, the deductible will be $40 a month instead of an upfront fee of $500, which Kukovich said had been difficult for many elderly people to meet.

Correction/Clarification: (Published Oct. 17, 2003) State Rep. Patricia Vance, R-Cumberland, is the prime sponsor of a bill to expand participation in the PACE and PACENET programs. A story in yesterday's editions said incorrectly that Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, and Sen. Allen Kukovich, D-Manor, were the prime sponsors.

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