Tennessee halts Rx drug program enrollment

Tennessee's new CoverRx prescription drug plan for low-income residents of the southern state has suspended enrollment, after almost 21,000 people signed up by February 8. The program's organizers explained that the total $11.5 million budget for the CoverRx scheme was expected to cover 25,000-50,000 people in the 2007 fiscal year. The program is one of three Cover Tennessee health insurance programs launched by Governor Phil Bredesen (Democrat) as part of his attempt to overhaul the troubled TennCare health care service.

A recent study found that Tennessee has the highest level of prescription drug use per capita of any US state (Marketletter February 19) with an average of 17.3 prescriptions per person annually, compared with 11.3 for the USA as a whole.