Health care for elderly question

Jim Westrich westrich at miser.umass.edu
Thu Jan 31 13:13:58 PST 2002


Joanna Bujes wrote:


>That basically leaves her with medicare and whatever other insurance she
>can afford. The question is what can she afford? She is old, a smoker, a
>drinker, with lots of "pre-existing conditions" -- dependency on
>anti-psychotic meds

Getting her access to SSI/Medicaid (as mentioned by Max and Marta) will provide inexpensive medical insurance (cover Medicare out -of-pocket costs) and some access to pharmacy benefits (you mentioned the anti-psychotics).

In case she cannot get Medicaid (the rules are different in each state) there are some options. Within Medicare, she could opt for a managed care plan to get some access to pharmacy, but there are few available providers that would provide decent care (but it is possible with luck and research).

There are expensive Medigap coverages.

Outside of that there are a few other options for cheaper drugs:

-Some states (like Massachusetts) have senior pharmacy programs run through their Medicaid divisions which have less stringent enrollment guidelines than standard Medicaid.

-You can get charity/PR discounts from otherwise wealthy pharmaceutical companies. There are 176 different programs and several thousand drugs available. There are a lot of hoops to jump through but if you need the meds this is worth it. All details:

http://www.needymeds.com/

-You can fill "legitimate" prescriptions from a Canadian supplier:

http://www.canadarx.net/

Peace,

Jim

Her job is gone with its health protection. She can't buy insurance now and that's not fair. But she's too risky, they all say. The answer comes back "No!" With two bad toothaches in just three years time, Mary isn't welcome in their HMO.

-Ray Korona



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