January 19, 2006 - Arambula Calls Vote on AB 132 ‘Doing the Right Thing’

For Immediate Release: January 19, 2006
Contact: Mercedes Flores
Phone: (916) 319-2031

Bill to provide emergency prescription drug funding to 200,000 Californians

Assemblymember Juan Arambula (D-Fresno) today voted to support legislation that would allocate up to $150 million to cover prescription drug costs for up to 30 days for almost 200,000 low-income and elderly Californians who have wrongly been denied prescription drug coverage under the federal government’s new Medicare Part D drug program.

Assembly Bill 132 passed the Assembly on an overwhelming, bipartisan vote of 74-to-2. The bill, which is an urgency measure, is expected to be signed by the Governor and go into effect as early as today.

“The Legislature has acted in a bipartisan fashion to at least temporarily correct a bad federal mistake,” Arambula said. “California is doing the right thing in assisting 200,000 of the most vulnerable among us who have not been able to get their prescription medicine due to federal bureaucratic snafus. There are people in the Central Valley area that this legislation will help immediately.”

AB 132 would require the Department of Health Services (DHS) to provide drug benefits to people enrolled in both Medicare and Medi-Cal who have been unable to obtain their prescription benefits from their prescription plan under the new Medicare program.

Last year Congress passed, and President Bush signed, a Medicare prescription drug benefit program that took effect January 1, 2006. While the new program is voluntary for most Medicare beneficiaries, it was made mandatory for the elderly poor (at least 65 years old) and disabled.

In California it is estimated that at least 200,000 of the state’s most vulnerable citizens have fallen through the cracks of the new Medicare drug program. They have been unable to get their medicine without lengthy delays because the computer system and phone lines supporting the new federal plan have failed to work properly.

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