Governor Provides Immediate Relief and Recovery to Pennsylvania Families Struggling with Health Care Costs

Last week, Governor Rendell announced a set of immediate steps to help Pennsylvania families in these tough economic times. Among these steps was an offering of health care coverage to 16,000 individuals on the adultBasic waiting list. While this will help only a small fraction of the record 205,000 people on the waiting list, it is a first step. The Governor has also asked the legislature to take the steps necessary to increase enrollment in the program so that a total of 50,000 individuals will be added to the program by June 2010. Adding those people will go a long way in helping tens of thousands of individuals and families.

The Governor also announced a new website to help consumers compare the prices of prescription drugs at various pharmacies in their area. The “PaRxPriceFinder” website allows consumers to search a specific geographic region for the prices of the 300 most commonly prescribed medications. If you try it, you will need to know the name of the prescription, dosage, and the zip code or town. Once you type in that information, the site will show the price that each pharmacy in the specified region charges for that specific prescription. People may be surprised to find that the lowest price of a generic drug can be 10 times less than the highest price being charged. Prices for brand names drugs will often vary from $10-$40. These are real savings that can mean the difference between a medication being skipped or taken.