Health Care

By MEGAN HALL

Providence, RI – Joanne Lepannen is the leader of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, or RIPAC. She doesn't like Chafee's plan to tax medical marijuana, but not prescription drugs.
"The fact that medical cannabis is not being treated in the same manner and in the same regard that prescription medication would be maybe create a public perception that it is not the same medicine," Lepannen says.

She says the she's also worried the tax will make it even harder for low income patients to buy their medicine.

By Bob Seay and Megan Hall

Providence, R.I. – When the Association for the Advancement of Retired persons, or AARP, selected its new board of directors last week, a Rhode Islander moved up to the rank of board chairman.

Phil Zarlengo from Jamestown has served on the National Board since 2006. Before that, he was the President of Rhode Island's AARP for five years. He recently joined WRNI's Bob Seay in the studio to talk about what's next for the AARP and seniors under the new health reform law.

By Larry Abramson