Cutting prescription drug costs in Sullivan

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

MONTICELLO, NY — For Tula Brown, August 18 was a red-letter day.

At the Monticello Senior Citizens Club meeting, Brown and Sullivan County Legislator Ron Hiatt gave the county’s first prescription discount card to Erskine Keary, a resident of Monticello. Fifty-thousand cards recently arrived after months of planning and support from the County Legislature, and Brown said Sullivan “slid in” as the last among 30 counties to be included in the in New York State program. Brown is a health insurance information counselor for the Sullivan County Office of the Aging.

The cards are available to all county residents regardless of age or financial status and can be used at local pharmacies to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, ideally by as much as 20 percent. The cards can’t, however, be used on top of a person’s health insurance plan.

They are being distributed free of charge at the Sullivan County Government Center and the Center for Workforce Development in Monticello and the Department of Family Services in Liberty, among other locations.

Catskill Regional Medical Center and the Senior Legislative Action Committee will also be able to provide the cards.

Hiatt, chair of the legislature’s Health and Family Services Committee, said, “We are looking to add all the town halls and participating pharmacies. Once these locations are confirmed we will have the county covered.”

Hiatt said, “As everyone knows, the price of medication has gone up considerably. It’s time the consumer got a break. There is strength in numbers and joining this plan will allow our residents to get their prescriptions cheaper.”

After receiving the first discount card, Keary said, “It will allow me to save money.” He added that he would begin buying certain drugs that his current insurance plan does not cover.

For more information call 845/794-3000, ext. 3330.