Sandy Moulton, Executive Director, RxMatters Foundation

When most of us think of poverty in America, we think of the homeless, the unemployed or other individuals who somehow missed out on the American dream.  We don’t picture the poor as people we know – people living in the suburbs in households headed by married couples with fulltime jobs.  (See “Older, Suburban and Struggling, ‘Near Poor’ Startle The Census,” The New York Times.)  However, a new government measure of poverty released last month identifies the poor and “near poor” as being people who look a lot like us and our friends and neighbors.  Even the government bean counters who work on these issues every day were surprised to find that, under this new calculation, one out of every three Americans lives at or just above the poverty level.

Those of us who work with healthcare benefit programs should welcome the change from the long-criticized Federal Poverty Level, which measured financial status solely by the annual family income.  The new Supplemental Poverty Measure provides a more realistic assessment of household wealth by taking into account benefits such as food stamps and tax credits, as well as expenses like insurance and transportation costs, and then adjusts the total for regional differences in the cost of living.

This new review of the complexity of poverty in America points out the vital need for pharmaceutical Patient Assistance Programs.  Through its service provider, Technekes, the Foundation works to offer pharmaceutical manufacturers a streamlined and compassionate way to provide free prescription drugs to patients who cannot otherwise afford them.  With poverty now affecting some 51 million Americans, programs like RxMatters are needed now, more than ever.