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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Deane Beebe
Communications Director
212-204-6219
E-mail
Medicare Rights Center

January 10, 2006

Governor Pataki Urged to End Public Health Emergency for Poor, Older and Disabled New Yorkers who Lost Access to Medications in the New Year

--Consumer Group Reports Scores of New Yorkers Turned Away from Pharmacies Across the State--

[New York, NY] – The Medicare Rights Center is calling on Governor George Pataki to permit New York State to temporarily cover the costs of prescription drugs for people with both Medicare and Medicaid who lost their Medicaid drug coverage on January 1, 2006 and cannot get their medications through a Medicare private drug plan, as intended under the new Medicare law.

“Very sick, very poor, older and disabled New Yorkers are calling our hotline desperate for help because they are leaving drugstores empty handed,” said Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center, a consumer service group which provides a Medicare counseling hotline for New Yorkers.

“Governor Pataki must follow the lead of states that have declared a public health emergency,” said Mr. Hayes. “These states are paying for medications for people who had Medicaid drug coverage and are now casualties of a Medicare drug benefit turned over to private plans.”

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Vermont have passed legislation to cover drug costs for people with both Medicaid and Medicare who cannot get their prescriptions filled since their Medicaid drug coverage ended at the start of the new year.

There are more than a half million people with both Medicare and Medicaid in New York. The exact number of people experiencing problems getting their prescriptions filled remains unclear, but reports from consumers, caregivers, health professionals and pharmacists continue to mount.

“States have a critical role to play in ensuring the people with Medicaid and Medicare do no fall through the cracks when trying to secure their medications,” says a letter to Governor Pataki from the Medicare Rights Center. A copy of the letter and some examples of the problems that New Yorkers are having accessing their prescriptions is available on the Medicare Rights Center’s website at http://www.medicarerights.org/pataki_letter_re_duals.html.

In anticipation of this problem, the Medicare Rights Center and seven other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit on behalf of those with both Medicaid and Medicare who were to lose their Medicaid drug coverage. The group filed an appeal that is pending in Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

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