Help for power, drugs OK’d

Friday, April 25, 2003 | 10:58 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Programs to help senior citizens pay their prescription drug bills and to aid needy families cover the costs of electricity were approved by a Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee Thursday.

Gov. Kenny Guinn's proposal to expand his Senior RX drug program from 7,500 to 12,160 persons over the next two years advanced. The subcommittee also approved the energy assistance program that gives grants to low income families to pay their power bills.

To qualify for the drug program, a person must be 62 or older, be a resident of Nevada for a year or more, must have an annual income of less than $21,500 and be ineligible for Medicaid.

Those who qualify don't have to pay a monthly premium but do pay $10 for generic drugs or $25 for preferred prescriptions or any other drug deemed medically necessary. The maximum benefit allowed each year for a senior is $5,000.

Guinn proposed, and the subcommittee agreed, to expand the eligibility rules. It will allow a married couple to qualify if their combined income is $28,600 or less.

More than 1,300 people are on the waiting list for the program, which uses money from the tobacco settlement and this time the state is chipping in about $2.6 million for the expansion of the program. The two-year budget is slightly more than $17 million.

The subcommittee also approved the $22.5 million budget for energy assistance. Low-income families in Southern Nevada are eligible for a grant, mainly to offset the high cost of air conditioning in the summer.