Quebec doubles its prescription premiums
CMAJ 2000;162:1727
Miriam Morris, a Quebec senior citizen living on a small pension, is furious that her drug insurance premiums are doubling in price. "The seniors can't do it," says Morris. "It's just impossible. They should run it like they did before."
Quebeckers who don't have drug coverage at work must pay a tax "premium" of up to $175 annually, plus a deductible at the pharmacy. Under the new plan, the maximum premium will double to $350 and the deductible will increase from $8.33 a month to $16.67. How much each person pays is determined by a complicated sliding scale. Only people earning less than $10 750 a year are exempt; Statistics Canada places the urban poverty line at $17 571. The province announced the increase in May in an effort to make its drug plan self-financing.
But some people say the new system penalizes the poor. Jennifer Auchinleck, a community organizer who is fighting the increase, would like to see low-income families receive their medications free. And Dr. Paul Saba, president of the Coalition of Physicians for Social Justice, says there are alternatives to "downloading the costs" to taxpayers. He suggests that the province negotiate better drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry and change its hands-off approach to the federal drug patent law, thereby allowing generic competition into the market sooner. "If Quebec came to the national average of prescriptions of generics, they'd save $70 million," said Saba, who also thinks doctors write too many prescriptions. "The government could make up to $400 million in savings by increasing the use of generics and educating physicians." — Susan Pinker, Montreal
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