Senator Golden Applauds Governor Cuomo’s Signing of Legislation Designed to Protect Neighborhood Pharmacies

Brooklyn – State Senator Martin J. Golden (R-C-I, Brooklyn), the former Chairman of the New York State Senate Aging Committee, today is applauding Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signing a bill, prohibiting health insurance companies from requiring prescriptions be filled by mail order pharmacies, into law.

Senator Golden, a co-sponsor of S. 3510-B, stated, “I applaud Governor Andrew Cuomo for signing into law a bill that allows consumer choice and protects the future of what we have come to know as our local drug store. I am proud to have supported this legislation in the State Senate and to have worked with local pharmacies to see this become law.

Health insurance companies were wrongly looking to mandate that mail order pharmacies be the primary means of filling a prescription. For the future of health care in New York, this was a dangerous attempt at taking the human element of medicine away from residents. We all know you can’t talk to your mail order pharmacist.

Further, in these economic times, such a requirement would have caused many local pharmacies, who already have to compete against the chain stores, to consider closing their business. This mandate would have caused a significant loss of jobs and tax revenue here in New York, and severely impacted an entire industry across this great State.”