Comptroller Sean Scanlon (D) says people who use the ArrayRx discount prescription card save an average of $219 a month on their medications. But so far, participation in the program is low. He explains how it works and how you can sign up.
Mike Hydeck: Lowering the cost of prescription drugs has been a political talking point for years, both here in Connecticut and in Washington. And in many cases, it's been just that: talk and very little action. However, the state has made some headway, and we are starting to see the impact of the Array RX program. State Comptroller Sean Scanlon joins us now to give us a little perspective on how things are going. First, the Array discount card. For people who haven't heard of it, and we know thousands have, but there are plenty who haven't, describe how it works.
Sean Scanlon: Well, how it works is very simple. This is Connecticut's first ever prescription drug discount card. What is that? It's a tool in the toolkit for the people of Connecticut that they can go right now to arrayrxcard.com, download this free card, and use it at 98 percent of the pharmacies here in our state to save on the cost of their drugs. As you just mentioned, Mike, one in five people in our state says they have trouble affording those drug costs, and this is our way of helping them out.
Mike Hydeck: So are all drugs on this? Right? Every single drug isn't on there, because some drugs are wildly expensive and you're not going to get a discount on, say, certain cancer drugs. But there are a long list of things that are?
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Sean Scanlon: It's not every single drug, but the most common drugs that most people take, whether it's for blood pressure or cholesterol or for heart disease, the sort of things that we hear a lot about people having trouble affording, are the kind of drugs that are covered under this card, and you can get them at 98 percent of the pharmacies here in Connecticut.
Mike Hydeck: So, I want to tell my dad to do this. He says, all right. Dad, you should go to this website and what happens? Do you download something? How do you get started?
Sean Scanlon: Yeah. So you go to the website, arrayxcard.com. If you're not good with computers, you can also call our office, and we can help you get it another way. But really what it is, is you're getting that card digitally. You're getting the number digitally, and then you can use that at your local pharmacy. And more importantly, Mike, if you're the kind of person like me who, as the Comptroller, is kind of cheap, and I'm always looking for the best deal, you can go to arrayrxcard.com, right now, search the drug that you take, and search what it would cost you at different local pharmacies in your area and find the best price. Go there. Get the cheapest drug price that you can get and save. So far, $219 per month is the average savings that people on this card are seeing, which is a big deal for people on a fixed income or having trouble affording it.
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Mike Hydeck: Of course, so then you can compare pharmacies to even dial it down even farther. So one of the things that I read about in preparing for this interview, there are several states that are involved in this. It's not just Connecticut. What are the other states? And will we add more in the future?
Sean Scanlon: I hope so. There's three other states right now that we are working with on this. And how it basically works, is that right now, as the Comptroller, I run the largest health care plan in Connecticut. Three-hundred thousand people get their health insurance through our office, and by teaming up with other states who also have that kind of large leverage in health care, we can give these big discounts to our residents. I know the governor, who worked with me to get this bill introduced in the legislature and passed, has been talking to his colleagues in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Because the more people that join this, Mike, the more we can start saving people right now here in our state, on the cost of drugs.
Mike Hydeck: So right now the other states, Nevada is one of them.
Sean Scanlon: Nevada, Washington and we just signed up Ohio is the newest state that's going to be joining us.
Mike Hydeck: Wow. So when you do that, do you talk to the other Comptrollers and say, 'Hey, this is working for us. Come on board.'
Sean Scanlon: Yeah, it's part of national efforts to do things. You know, as Washington continues to bog down in a lot of partisanships, states are stepping up to try to solve problems, and we're working across party lines as state governments to do that, and this is a good example of how we can do that.
Mike Hydeck: Is the program funded by state taxpayer dollars, or is it really just buying power because everybody's joining together?
Sean Scanlon: It's just the buying power. The only state expenditure that we have on this program is one position within my office who coordinates this and works with the pharmacies to make sure this works. But this is entirely paid for by the people who use this card, and our discounts are being able to be offered to them through the leverage of what we're already doing.
Mike Hydeck: So will there be more drugs added in the future, and then how is that decision made to add one to the list? Where does that go?
Sean Scanlon: Well, what I tell people all the time, as I travel across the state talking to people about this is two things. Number one, this is not just for seniors. This is for everybody in the State of Connecticut who can use this card to save on the cost of their drugs. And number two is that drug prices change all the time. There's a very insane system of how we've priced our drugs in this country, which is the reason why we pay more than anyone else in the world for the cost of these drugs. So what I tell people is, use that card and don't just say I tried it once, it didn't work, and now I'm giving up on it. These prices change all the time. The prices are different at a CVS in one town versus a Walgreens in another. Use this card as a tool. Try it every time you go to get a drug, whether it's a drug you've been taking for a long time, or a brand new drug, and I guarantee you will start to see some savings.
Mike Hydeck: It also speaks to the bigger issue of what we should do about prescription drugs in our country for sure. Do you think this could be scaled to a much greater degree? You said we added Ohio, but do you foresee maybe 10 states or 12 states being part of this, and then maybe that's the bully pulpit to change things nationwide?
Sean Scanlon: You know, I hope so. I hope that we'll continue to add people, but what I'm focused on is getting more Connecticut residents signed up for it. Right now, we've had only about 20,000 people sign up. Still 20,000 people, it's a big deal. We live in a huge state, and there's no marketing budget. It's just me going around talking about this. And so I hope that your listeners today will go on check this out. The savings are real. The cost of drugs are too high. And if you can go right now to arrayrxcard.com download this quick card, start using it, you will start to save and I think it's a big help for the people of Connecticut.
Mike Hydeck: Right. Considering it's only 19,000 we have a couple million we could still add to it.
Sean Scanlon: We've got work to do.
Mike Hydeck: Comptroller Scanlon, good to see you. Thanks for your time this morning.
