Lingle details plan for free prescription drugs
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer
About 20,000 people who lack the money, the means or the medical insurance to pay for prescription drugs will get access to free medicine later this year under a public-private partnership detailed yesterday by Gov. Linda Lingle.
No state money will be spent on the program, in which healthcare providers will match up needy residents with drug manufacturers that offer free medicines and nutritional supplements.
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation gave a $3 million grant to help run the program. It is expected to be operating within six months.
Yesterday's announcement fleshed out Lingle's promise for a free drug program made last month in her State of the State speech.
She called it an example of the kind of innovative solutions that can be found when government works with private industry. The two-year program would provide relief until the federal government begins its own prescription drug program for the poor, she said.
But Greg Marchildon, executive director of AARP Hawaii, an organization representing retirees, said Lingle's plan is disappointing and won't do as much as two other laws passed by state lawmakers last year that have yet to take effect.
Lingle said her program is modeled after one at Maui Memorial Hospital that is currently serving 600 patients and has served another 200 who no longer need assistance.
Under the state program, needy patients at the 12 state hospitals run by the Hawai'i Health Systems Corp. and five clinics run by the Hawai'i Primary Care Association would be given help applying for free prescription drugs.
Doctors and residents at large also would have access through a call center run by the Hawai'i Medical Association (a phone number will be announced later).
At Maui Memorial, certified pharmacy technician Karin Hokoana works directly with the patients to link them to the free medicine. She said it usually takes a few weeks to complete the process. Some companies require more proof of income than others.
Hokoana said people usually get a three-month supply and may have that refilled for up to a year without re-applying. She said the program is reaching out to people without the money to buy prescription drugs "and some that are a little too proud" to seek out what they see as charity.
Lingle said she's acting now because the two prescription drug laws passed by the 2002 Legislature aren't ready to help anyone.
"This will get real medicine to real people," she said.
But Marchildon said Lingle's give-away program would be "complicated, bureaucratic and burdensome" and aimed at helping very few people. He said other states have similar programs, which can be of help, but provide no guarantees of continued operation.
"If the governor thinks this is a substitute for the laws that are already on the books, she's sorely mistaken," Marchildon said.
He said more people will be reached by the two Legislature-created drug programs.
One, called Hawai'i Rx, will create a purchasing pool that would negotiate discounts on prescription drugs for some 220,000 Hawai'i residents who do not have prescription-drug coverage. But that program is not set to begin until January 2005, and the law is on hold because of pending lawsuits in the Supreme Court by the pharmaceutical industry against Maine, upon whose law Hawai'i's was modeled.
The second law allows more people to qualify for Medicaid prescription-drug coverage. It would increase qualifying incomes to up to three times the national poverty level, a step that AARP sees as helping the poor and the middle class.
Marchildon said the second program could begin in April if Lingle provides $1.4 million it needs to operate. He said that program would cut by 40 percent the cost of medicine for qualifying people.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
