GOV. DAVIS: Looking to Help Seniors with Drug Costs

      "[I]nspired by a conversation with Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn" (R) at the National Governors' Association meeting, Gov. Gray Davis has asked his staff to study the Nevada plan to provide prescription drugs to low-income seniors, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The $6 million-per-year Nevada program, slated to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2000, will provide benefits to about 14,000 state residents with incomes of less than $21,600 per year. Eligibility would be determined by "a 10-year-old program that gives property-tax and rent rebates to low-income seniors." Beneficiaries will be required to make co-pays of $8 for a generic drug and $13 for a brand-name drug. Guinn will draw on money from the state's share of the national tobacco settlement to pay for the benefit. Davis said tobacco settlement proceeds do "not necessarily have to be our funding source, although it could be. But I don't want to get the cart too far out in front of the horse." The California Department of Health could not estimate immediately the number of Californians that would be eligible under such a program (Mendel, 8/10).