Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Area residents will get their new Golden Buckeye cards in late November.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR HEALTH WRITER
Local senior-center leaders say the new Golden Buckeye cards will be particularly helpful to poor seniors whose income is too high for them to qualify for free and discounted drugs offered by pharmaceutical companies.
The new Golden Buckeye cards enable Ohio residents age 60 and over, and adults with permanent and total disabilities, to get discounts on prescription drugs.
The new cards will be mailed to some 2 million Ohioans over the next two months. Columbus residents are slated to receive theirs first, in mid-October, and people who live in the Warren, Youngstown and Steubenville areas will get their cards by late November.
The cards will be useable at about 90 percent of Ohio pharmacies, with savings ranging from 13 percent off the average wholesale price of brand-name drugs to 20 percent off generic-drug costs, according to Gov. Bob Taft, who announced the mailing Monday.
The card provides customer rebates of 10 to 30 percent on 55 popular drugs, and special assistance to seniors with income below 300 percent of poverty ($30,000 for an individual and $40,000 for a couple).
All of the major drug-manufacturing companies except Pfizer are enrolled in the program, said Steve Proctor of the Ohio Department of Aging.
Praise for program
The Buckeye Golden cards really work, said Mary Cunningham, program director for the Ceramic City Senior Citizens Center, a program of Catholic Charities Regional Agency in East Liverpool.
Cunningham said seniors pay close attention to which stores give discounts and when, and do their buying accordingly.
"Any little thing seniors can get will help," said Judy Seiber, director of the Senior Center of Mahoning County.
She said the card is a "godsend" for seniors who are above the income level which would qualify them for prescription-drug assistance from the pharmaceuticals but still do not have enough money on which to live.
Deborah Zador, coordinator of the Prescription Assistance for Seniors program in Trumbull County, agreed that the Buckeye card will be a help to many seniors. She said her income-based program has saved seniors about $1 million in prescription costs since July 2001.
Seniors registered to vote or who have an Ohio driver license or an Ohio ID card will receive their free Golden Buckeye cards in the mail. Those not receiving the card in the initial mailing may apply for a card at local senior centers and libraries beginning in late November.