State To Recoup Drug Costs From

Estates Of Elderly, Disabled

WATERBURY –– Hundreds of low-income elderly and disabled people have dropped out of the state’s prescription drug program because of a new law that allows the government to recoup expenses from program recipients’ estates.

Scores of others affected by the new state law, called the first of its kind in the country by one health care expert, are expressing their anger and asking questions in phone calls and emails to state lawmakers, the Republican-American of Waterbury reported in last Thursday’s editions.

The General Assembly approved the new statute in August but made it retroactive to July 1, the start of the new fiscal year, to help close a $1 billion budget gap.

The law expands the state’s power to recover money it has spent on social service programs. Connecticut already is authorized to dip into the estates of late recipients to recover costs for programs like Medicaid, a joint federal-state low-income aid program, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, formerly known as welfare.

The estate-recovery provision, which takes up a page and a half in a 90-page budget bill, does hold off collecting on a deceased person’s estate until his or her spouse dies.

Rita Stauffer just learned about the new law. The state has spent more than $1,100 on prescription drugs for the 70-year-old Prospect resident since July.

“This is like a lien on my house,” said Stauffer, 70, who is taking more prescription drugs since she had knee replacement surgery three weeks ago. “I woke up a couple of times Saturday night. It bothered me all weekend.”

The new statute applies to about 45,000 low-income seniors and 6,000 disabled individuals who participate in ConnPACE, a state prescription drug program.

The response has not been favorable.

As of Wednesday, 321 ConnPACE beneficiaries had dropped the program, according to the state Department of Social Services.

Many who participate in the program are upset.

“They have broken a contract. They should be sued,” ConnPACE recipient Robert Mohr of Madison said.

Opponents of the “estate recovery” provision are scrambling to reopen the issue.

Critics say the law was not properly vetted during this year’s legislative session.

“It’s one of those things if you had a vote on it by itself, it wouldn’t have passed because legislators don’t want to be seen as against seniors,” said Rep Anthony D’Amelio, R-Waterbury, who received ten phone calls at home Tuesday from agitated seniors.

Facing growing political pressure –– seniors vote more often than any group and state lawmakers are up for reelection next year –– some state officials say the issue may come up in the legislative session that begins in February.

“We may have to go back and examine this in the next session,” said Marc Ryan, Governor John G. Rowland’s budget director. “I don’t think we have to totally retreat from it though.”

Donna Folkemer, a health care analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said dipping into someone’s estate to recover costs associated with a state prescription drug program for seniors is unprecedented.

“There isn’t any other state that has done this,” she said.

Of the 30 or so states offering prescription drug aid programs, Connecticut, like Massachusetts, generally is lauded for providing broad-based benefits, Ms Folkemer said.

ConnPACE offers seniors and disabled individuals who make less than $20,300 a year –– and married couples with less than $27,500 in income –– prescription drugs at reduced prices.

Participants must claim less than $125,000 in assets, submit a $30 annual enrollment fee, and pay $16.25 copays.

Critics say the authors of the legislation have underestimated how many recipients would drop the program because of the estate recovery provision.

“They estimated a relatively low number of people” who will drop ConnPACE, says Brenda Kelley, state director of AARP Connecticut, adding that her organization will fight to undo the provision in the coming legislative session.

“I think that some people have already done that because they don’t want their house captive. It’s the last piece of dignity they have,” Kelley said.

The savings from the 300 or so recipients who have dropped ConnPACE would produce almost three times the savings the legislative Office of Fiscal Analysis predicted for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2004. That office assumed $250,000 in savings.

As unpopular as the new law is, there are some who defend it.

“I don’t like it. But anyone who wants to undo this must show us where the money comes from,” said state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin Sullivan, D-West Hartford.