Posted At Sun-Sentinel.com

BY : Bob La Mendola

A growing number of seriously ill Floridians are calling on Gov. Jeb Bush and state officials to step up and help pay for medications that have jumped in cost or been left uncovered under Medicare's new prescription drug program.

Advocates for people with kidney disease, HIV/AIDS, mental illnesses and other ailments said some low-income elderly and disabled patients have been cut off from medicine because of Medicare glitches, and they have implored the state to temporarily cover the drugs. Rosetta Foy of North Lauderdale said her father, 71, has HIV/AIDS but ran out of his four-drug cocktail. The druggist would not give a refill last week because computerized records did not list her father as enrolled in the Medicare program, she said. He couldn't afford $3,000 for the drugs.

"He stopped taking his pills," Foy said. "He had been doing good, but I don't know what will happen if he keeps going on without these meds. His counselor says the HIV could become resistant to the drugs. I'm distraught about it. It was just about money. The drugstore was worried they're not going to get paid."

As part of the new program that started Jan. 1, low-income patients who previously had their medicine covered through state Medicaid now receive drug coverage through Medicare.

But unlike Medicaid, Medicare has co-payments. And the new Medicare program has been plagued with early problems. As a result, at least 26 states are using Medicaid money to buy drugs for those who have been denied.

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rod Smith and several state legislators have urged Gov. Bush to follow suit, as have the National Kidney Foundation of Florida and other groups.

Florida officials said they have no plans to spend state dollars on the Medicare problem, saying they do not think it's severe or widespread.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which runs the state's $16 billion Medicaid program, has been trying to solve every individual problem reported and is working with Medicare to solve the glitches in the system, agency Secretary Alan Levine said.

"That's what we've got to do -- solve the problems," said Levine, who was in Fort Lauderdale on Monday meeting with pharmacists about Medicare.

Paying for prescriptions denied or held up by Medicare would cost the state about $40 million, Levine said.

"Even if we put the money on the table, it's a temporary solution. If you don't solve the problems, you'll have the same problems all over again next month," Levine said.

Glitches with the new Medicare program include recipients not listed as eligible, people charged full price for covered drugs, incorrect co-payments and new drug plans not covering drugs patients had taken for years.

The same snags have plagued some of Medicare's 43 million recipients, although Medicare officials say most people have had no problems with their medications.

The Kidney Foundation said Monday that some of its 18,000 patients cannot get dialysis or medications to sustain transplanted organs. Others cannot get transportation that had been covered by Medicaid.

Mentally ill patients have been hospitalized with crises after missing medications. HIV/AIDS patients have been hit with co-payments of more than $1,000 or asked to pay full price of more than $2,000 a month, social workers said.

Also hit hard have been chronically ill people with very high medical bills, advocates said.

"We may not be considered low-income but we will be starving," said HIV/AIDS patient Michael Rajner, who faces drug co-pays of $6,000 a year on an income of $25,000.