To the Editor:
Health care costs and inflation remain two of the biggest concerns for many Ohio citizens – and no population feels that more than our seniors and retirees.
Because they live on a fixed income, retirees need to budget and plan around a monthly number. Unexpected expenses can be devastating for seniors.
Most people I talk with don’t know that seniors are shut out of a common form of help.
A 50-year-old with insurance through work can use a manufacturer’s copay card to lower her medicine costs, while her mother on Medicare, taking the same drug, generally can’t because federal anti-kickback rules bar those cards for prescriptions Medicare covers.
Voters want that changed by a wide margin. Allowing drug manufacturers to offer copay cards to Medicare patients, the same help people with private insurance already get, drew support from 88 percent of likely voters in a poll commissioned by Americans for Health Excellence.
A flat, income-tiered cap on what seniors pay per prescription wasn’t far behind at 83 percent.
I now serve on the advisory council of the Ohio District 5 Area Agency on Aging, and I’d ask Sen. Jon Husted, who sits on the Senate Special Committee on Aging, to take up both ideas with the rest of Ohio’s delegation.
Seniors on Medicare deserve the same help everyone else gets.
Margaret Ann Ruhl
Fredericktown, Ohio