36,000 elderly lost discount on drugs

PORTLAND – A court ruling last month has cost about 36,000 low-income elderly and disabled Mainers their eligibility for discounts on certain medicines under the state’s Drugs for the Elderly program.

The program will continue to offer 80 percent discounts on certain drugs for 14 chronic illnesses such as diabetes and asthma. But all other drugs must now be bought at full price or at discounts less than those offered in the past.

The reduced benefits are a trickle-down effect of a Dec. 24 federal appeals court decision to overturn a companion program, Healthy Maine Prescriptions.

Mainers participating in Drugs for the Elderly – who earn under 185 percent of the federal poverty level – were allowed to participate in Healthy Maine, which offers savings of up to 25 percent on drugs for people making under 300 percent of the poverty level.

On Dec. 27, the state stopped offering Healthy Maine to 76,000 enrollees because the court indicated that Healthy Maine was an illegal expansion of Medicaid, an argument long-held by the pharmaceutical industry, which brought the suit.

But state officials said that members of Drugs for the Elderly could continue to use the program – until Thursday.

“We felt initially that a reading of the opinion was limited to folks above 185 percent of the federal poverty level,” said Newell Augur, spokesman for the state Department of Human Services. “But in fact, that’s unfortunately not the case.”

Advocates for senior citizens said taking benefits away would be devastating.

“We’re talking about folks who are at the bottom ladder of income,” said John Carr, president of the Maine Council of Senior Citizens. “To lose [the Healthy Maine benefit] is a real shot in the pocketbook.”

DHS on Monday sent letters to the roughly 112,000 people who received benefits through Drugs for the Elderly, Healthy Maine, or both, with the bad news. The letters also express optimism that Healthy Maine would be fully restored.