Senate Health and Welfare hears bill to let treasurer join ArrayRx prescription discount card

The Senate Health and Welfare committee on April 10 heard H.577, a bill that would authorize the Vermont office of the state treasurer to join ArrayRx, a multistate consortium offering a prescription drug discount card that officials said could lower out-of-pocket costs for Vermonters.

Representative Critchlow introduced the measure to the committee, saying the program would let “any Vermont resident” enroll in a discount-card program administered through a multistate collaboration. Critchlow said the card can yield steep savings in many cases and noted Medicare’s recent participation nationally: “residents have seen an average savings of approximately $259 a month,” she said, and the bill would be self-funded through a small transaction fee baked into advertised prices rather than by ongoing state general-fund support.

Jan Harvey of the Office of Legislative Council walked the committee through the bill text, noting the bill would create a new subchapter in the prescription drug cost-containment statutes to establish the Vermont prescription drug discount card program administered by the treasurer. Harvey said the bill directs that monies received by the program be deposited into an existing special fund (renamed the Financial Literacy and Economic Empowerment Trust Fund) to…