Penurious Pennsylvania smokers filed a class action suit on Friday to force commonwealth officials to turn over a portion of the state’s $11 billion settlement with the tobacco industry to the Medicaid recipients they say it was designed to benefit.
Attorneys David S. Shrager and Edward B. McDaid of Shrager McDaid Loftus Flum & Spivey argue that the poor smokers — “the Commonwealth’s most powerless citizens” — are legally entitled to their fair share of the settlement since the state’s lawsuit specifically sought reimbursement of Medicaid funds spent on behalf of those injured by tobacco. Federal law requires that a portion of any funds recovered in such a suit be disbursed to the injured parties, the suit says.
