By Tim Bonfield
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Price Hill resident Emma Harmeyer has heard years of talk from plenty of politicians about creating a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Emma Harmeyer spends a significant amount of her income on prescription drugs. She is active in a seniors group calling for reform. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

So far, all of it has been nothing but talk. So she'll put stock in President Bush's State of the Union comments about Medicare if and when she sees some results.

"I'll just have to see. I hope it gets done, but I'm worried it won't," Harmeyer said.

Harmeyer, 77, lives at Senior Chateau on the Hill, a subsidized building for seniors on Grand Avenue. She spends about $100 a month, mostly on heart medications, from a Social Security check of about $700 a month.

If she wasn't getting a break on rent, she wouldn't be able to afford the medicine. And she has friends in the building who spend even more.

"I think it's getting worse. Insurance costs are going up. The medications are going up. It's just harder to cover it all," Harmeyer said. "I know people who have to do without food to pay for their medications. And that's bad."

Harmeyer has been involved for years with a Price Hill seniors group and more recently with the Working in Neighborhood Senior Action Coalition, which has been pushing politicians to act on Medicare prescription drug benefits.

"We've had several of 'em out here to the Senior Chateau. But none of 'em could help us do anything about it."

E-mail tbonfield@enquirer.com