New Pharma strategy for seniors

On April 23, 2009, Health Minister
Liepert finally revised the seniors’
component of the problematic
Alberta Pharmaceutical Strategy,
a document he has staunchly
defended in the face of mounting
outrage from seniors, and
complaints from the opposition
and even from within his own
caucus.
Without acknowledging the
profound flaws in his original plan,
Minister Liepert has now admitted
that it would hurt many seniors
and did not reflect the reality of
current economic conditions.
However, the Minister is not
reverting to the current universal
plan, under which seniors pay no
premium but cover 30% of
prescription costs to a maximum
of $25 per prescription.
Instead, he has devised a new
plan that off-loads $20 million of
government costs onto the backs
of Alberta senior citizens.
His “new” plan drops the idea of
an income-based deductible, one
of the most galling features of his
original proposal, and replaces it
with an income-based scale of
premiums and co-payments, as
shown in the following tables.
2
For a single income senior:
Taxable Income  Annual Premium
$0- $12,000              $0
$12,001-$24,000    $0+CP*
$24,001-$36,000    $381.00 + CP
$36,001-$48,000    $571.44 + CP
$48,001 or more    $762.00 + CP
For a Senior couple:
Taxable Income     Annual Premium
$0- $24,000           $0
$24,001-$48,000    $0 +CP
$48,001-$72,000    $708.00+CP
$72,001-$96,000    $1,062.00+CP
$96,001 or more    $1,416.00+CP
* Premiums followed by “+CP” require a
co-payment of 20% of cost to a
maximum of $15 per prescription.
The three levels of premium are
50%, 75% and 100%, of the
rates the government has set for
the Blue Cross Non-group Plan.
However, the government also
plans to triple the premium rates
for this plan by the time the new
seniors’ plan kicks in on July 1,
2010.
Alberta Blue Cross Non-Group
Annual Premium Rates
Effective Dates   Single         Family
Current               $246.00      $492.00
July 1,2009          $492.00      $984.00
July 1,2010          $762.00      $1,416.00
3
A 25% or 50% discount on
premium rates the government
plans to increase by 300% is not
much of a break.
Clearly, the big winner here is the
insurance industry, not seniors.
Once again, the government’s
approach is essentially one of
privatization, at the expense of
our public health system and our
more vulnerable groups.
While the provision of free
prescription drugs to low-income
seniors is a smart move, many
middle-income seniors are going
to find these premium rates
unaffordable.
Even the lowest premium rate is
about 50% higher than the same
coverage currently costs, and that
ignores the cost of the co-pay and
the numerous non-prescription
and uncovered medications that
seniors often require.
The middle premium rate for
drugs alone is approximately
equal to the Alberta Health Care
premium rate that was
discontinued for all Albertans on
January 1, 2009 and was
eliminated for Alberta’s seniors
years before that.