The Missouri Rx Plan Due To Expire on Aug 28

For a dozen years, Missouri has offered low-income senior citizens some type of aid to pay for their prescription drugs. But that may be about to end.
The Missouri Rx Plan, which helps pay the medicine costs of 212,000 seniors and disabled residents, is due to expire Aug. 28 unless lawmakers renew it. So far, they have not done so. And a Senate budget plan is banking on its demise, redirecting millions of dollars that normally would fund the prescription program to other government purposes. Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration is urging lawmakers to not let the program lapse. Missouri lawmakers have until May 6 to pass a budget. They have until May 13 to pass a bill reauthorizing the program’s existence. Some lawmakers wonder if the need for such aid is diminishing because of a new federal health care law that reduces out-of-pocket prescription costs for people covered by Medicare.