Help for power, prescriptions OK’d

Friday, April 25, 2003 | 9:30 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Programs to help senior citizens pay their prescription drug bills and plans to aid needy families cover the rising 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, 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, plus an additional $2.6 million from the state for the expansion of the program. The two-year budget is slightly more than $17 million.

The subcommittee 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 while those in Northern Nevada collect the money to offset the winter heating bills.

The state Welfare Division that administers the program expects to serve about 20,000 residents with the average annual grant being $500. Subsidies have ranged from $11 to $3,000 depending on the income level of the family.

To qualify, a single person must not have a monthly income of more than $1,107. A family of three would be eligible if its monthly income was below $1,877. Benefits vary depending on the income and the total annual energy usage in dollars.

The federal government will supply an estimated $6.6 million under the low-income home energy assistance program set up in 1981.