Seniors concerned about higher fees for medications
Extra co-payment charges add to the bill
Medications helping Niagara’s seniors remain healthy may be costing them more than they did before the pandemic.
As a result of limits being placed on prescription medications — reducing prescription refills to a one month rather than a three month supply — seniors say they’re being charged as much as three times the amount they would have previously been charged in drug co-payments. Welland resident Marie White, 76, said she understands the need for the restrictions, which help ensure drug supplies last through the COVID-19 pandemic.
But she estimates co-payment charges added to the bill each time she fills her prescriptions for herself and her 78-year-old husband will cost $120 — about $80 more than she would have been previously paid.
“Over a year, that’s going to be a few bucks,” she said.
“For us, that’s one thing. But I am more concerned for family members who don’t have the same amount of money coming in. I’m thinking about them. They’re going to be hit … There are a lot of people who are really going to suffer. There are other people who are in much worse shape and taking more medications, and they’re surviving on a lot less money than we are.”
Pharmacist Ivana Cutting, who owns Northland Pharmacy in Port Colborne, said most of her clients understand the need for the one-month limitations.
She said the drug rationing is helping prevent large pharmacies “from buying up everything and leaving little ones like me in the lurch.”
Nevertheless, Cutting said it’s “something that I am quite worried about.”
She said some pharmaceutical distribution companies have been open to pharmacists requesting additional medications in special cases, but it can still delay filling prescriptions by a day or two.
The Ontario Pharmacy Association (OPA) has weighed in on the issue, too, concerned that limiting patients to a 30day supply of medications will require more trips to the pharmacy — at a time when people are being instructed to stay home as much as possible.
In a media release issued by OPA Monday, its chief executive officer, Justin Bates, said the additional co-payments being charged are “not a cash grab or gouging.”
The organization said it has asked the province to cover the extra co-payments that patients are required to pay outof-pocket. But in the same media release, the Ministry of Health said pharmacists can waive all or part of the co-pay if they choose.
The provincial New Democratic Party is asking the province to cover the full cost of seniors’ prescriptions, as well, adding co-payment charges can cost up to $6.11 for each prescription filled.
“No senior in Ontario should have to skip their pills or skimp on food as a result of the pandemic, but if seniors have to pay for each prescription each month, some of them will be forced to make difficult choices,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath in a media release.
“This could make our elderly loved ones unwell, and put more pressure on our overloaded health-care system.”