Gov. Jay Nixon signed legislation Thursday sponsored by Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville, that will extend Missouri’s prescription drug assistance program for another three years.
“Missouri Rx helps hundreds of thousands of seniors and Missourians with disabilities afford the prescription medication they need, and I commend the General Assembly for moving forward with the program’s reauthorization,” Nixon said in a statement.
The measure, Senate Bill 754, will reauthorize the Missouri Rx program until Aug. 28, 2017. It was set to expire next month.
The MoRx plan, established by the Legislature in 2006, helps seniors making too much to get some prescription drug coverage from traditional Medicare with as much as 50 percent of the out-of-pocket costs. A senior couple making an annual gross household income of less than $29,140 are eligible to apply.
“With Medicare Part D, we had that doughnut hole,” Sater said. “This helps with that and the co-pays, and it is truly a benefit. It is just a very good program for our low-income seniors who aren’t on Medicaid. I’m glad he signed it and thought he would. It does help our most low-income seniors.”
Sater, a pharmacist, said he would like to see the program continued beyond 2017, but that the renewal provision was a tradition that was rooted in the program’s beginning.
In addition to the MoRx component, the bill includes other health care policy changes. In a signing statement, Nixon was critical of one provision that will allow medical school graduates to obtain a temporary assistant physician license to work with physicians if a residency is not available.
“Ensuring that all Missourians have access to adequate health care is a laudable goal, but it is equally important that such measures do not place citizens’ health in jeopardy,” he wrote. “Considering that this new category of licensure would make Missouri unique among states and would embark upon uncharted waters in providing health care to Missourians, it is imperative that there be comprehensive and rigorous oversight and regulation of such ‘assisting physicians.’”
Sater said the provision was important because it would help graduates in need of on-the-job training.
The measure includes a provision that instigates the “Show-Me Extension for Community Health Care Outcomes Program.” The program, as designed, will task the University of Missouri with using telemedicine to deliver health care to underserved areas around the state.
Student assistance
The bill also allows students living on campus at Missouri colleges and universities to receive a meningococcal vaccine against meningitis.