Dorothy MacInnis of Chateau Estates in Cornwall holds her Spiriva HandiHaler medication and her other. Guardian photo by Brian McInnis
NJN Editor – this is quite common. People will drop their disability pension because they lose drug coverage under some bizarre logic at the Department of Social Services and Seniors. It actually saves the Province about $10,000 per per per year to leave them on the Federally funded CP Disability but “rules are rules.”
JIM DAY The Charlottetown Guardian
Dorothy MacInnis was thrilled when the province announced last month a list of new drugs it will be covering. The list contained Spiriva, a drug MacInnis has used since 2003 to treat her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Spiriva is one of the 18 new drugs now in the provincial drug formulary. The province will cover a handful of COPD medications, including Spiriva, for patients who meet established clinical criteria and who qualify through the Family Health Benefit, Financial Assistance, Nursing Home and Seniors programs. MacInnis, 59, of Cornwall was disheartened to learn she doesn’t qualify to have the province cover her cost of purchasing Spiriva.
She simply doesn’t meet the criteria. Her income is too high for her to qualify under the financial assistance program, she doesn’t have children so she is excluded from the family health benefit program, she is not in a nursing home and she is 59 so that counts her out from the nursing home and seniors programs respectively.
“I’m kind of discouraged,’’ she said.
Spiriva is just one of five different prescribed medications that MacInnis takes each evening to combat a host of ailments, including high cholesterol, hyperactivity, COPD, and a mental health condition.
The drug is also the most expensive of the lot. MacInnis spends about $86 a month for Spiriva, compared to $57 a month for another drug to combat her high cholesterol and about $35 per month for three other drugs combined.
In total, her prescribed medications leave her about $180 out of pocket each month – not an unnoticeable slice from her income that consists of a $700 monthly disability cheque and $73 every three months in GST rebate.
By comparison, she feels the province of Ontario took much better care of her before she decided to move to P.E.I. She didn’t pay a penny for her prescribed medication in Ontario. The provincial government footed the bill.
“They have a great plan up there (in Ontario),’’ she said.
“I’ll probably end up moving back because I can’t afford my drugs (on P.E.I.)’’
When the P.E.I. government announced on Feb. 19 it is investing $1.6 million to add 18 new drugs to the list of drugs paid for by the public purse, many Islanders naturally clamored to see if their drug cost burden was about to be eased.
MacInnis believes many, like her, were unpleasantly surprised to learn they don’t meet the criteria to receive coverage for these additions to the provincial drug formulary.
“I imagine there are a lot of people disappointed that they are not covered,’’ she said.
Social Services Minister Doug Currie promised last month that the province will continue to work to add new drugs. However, he added Islanders will not have equal access to drugs that are covered in other provinces until the federal government approves a national drug strategy, including specific measures to address the coverage of catastrophic drugs.
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