Owensboro, Ky., Community Group Commissions Study of Prescription Drug Costs

The Public Life Foundation in Owensboro, Ky., has commissioned two reporters to examine how local residents are struggling to pay for prescription drugs and to devise possible community-based solutions, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer reports. The study is part of the People's Health Project, the "second phase of a health assessment" conducted by the Center for Health Services at the University of Kentucky, which found that 20% of respondents could not pay for prescriptions. The two reporters -- Fran Ellers, lead researcher and a former journalist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, and Diana Taylor, former writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader -- will examine reasons for the high cost of prescription drugs at the national, state and local level and will investigate how other communities are addressing the problem. According to the Messenger-Inquirer, the journalists will release a report by "mid- or late-October" (Carrico, Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, 8/14).