Guinn signs senior Rx bill into law

Thursday, June 14, 2001 | 11:20 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The bill to improve the disappointing senior citizen prescription drug program has been signed by Gov. Kenny Guinn.

The program is for seniors under 62 earning less than $21,500 a year who need help paying for prescription drugs.

The Senior Rx program produced a fight in the Legislature between Guinn and Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas. In the end, they reached a compromise on how the program should be shaped.

Although an estimated 10,000 seniors are eligible, less than 400 have enrolled in the insurance plan since last December.

"The often unmanageable cost of prescription medicine is the most pressing issue facing low-income seniors in Nevada, and we have an obligation to do what we can to help them," Guinn said.

"It is my hope, now that Senate Bill 539 is law, that word will spread throughout the state that assistance to low-income seniors is available immediately."

Under the law, the state will pay the full insurance premium for qualifying seniors. An individual will pay a $10 co-pay on generic drugs and a $25 co-pay for preferred brands. The maximum payment for an individual's drugs is $5,000 a year. There is a $100 deductible.

The program was started by Guinn in 1999 using about $5 million from the tobacco settlement money. The governor said the state Department of Human Resources has streamlined and simplified the application process so that most eligible seniors can be enrolled in one step.

And the list of drugs that will be available will be changed to coincide with the needs of the elderly.

The system will continue to contract with a private insurance company. Guinn hopes to enroll several thousand people. If the goal is not met, the system would be converted to a state operated plan, as favored by Buckley.