750 days is a relevant number, here's why... What a difference 750 days makes in the world of politics and pharmacy... Let's go back to February 29 2016... As part of Ontario's "Patients First" action plan to improve affordability of medications for low income seniors, the government proposed:
The Ministry of Health would fund more medications for low income seniors by charging non-low income seniors more for their respective medications. This plan to increase the deductible and the co-pay was not implemented as numerous organizations (and political parties) complained about its negative effects for non-low income seniors. Fast forward 750 days later to March 20 2018... The same Ministry of Health announced the following:
It's quite a dramatic turnaround in public health policy. This is not a politics-focused blog so I will not write about any political motivations here, but I will ask a basic question... What is the cost of zero?It's somewhat easy to find out how much "zero" costs. The Office of the Auditor General of Ontario posted this information in their "2017 Report Ontario Public Drug Programs". $689 million was saved in 2016/2017 fiscal year by the Ministry of Health through charging co-payments and deductibles. This includes co-pays and deductibles from seniors 65+, ODSP, Ontario Works, Trillium Drug Program, etc...The entire $689 million does not completely change from a savings to an expense, but the vast majority of it would (one exception is the deductible from Trillium Drug Program). The government's 2018 budget lists an approximate expense of $575 million yearly by 2020-2021. There will be widespread implications of this expense.I'm working on a separate article about this... Now that we've gone to zero, unless a future government negates this plan, there's pretty much no going back to charging co-pays and deductibles. There will be a ripple effect across private insurance, government negotiations, and more... In addition, the Auditor General's 2017 report on the Ontario Public Drug Programs is a fascinating account of how the Ministry of Health spends taxpayer money but it also reveals numerous areas for the Ministry of Health to trim its budget, regardless of co-pay or deductible existence. |
Behind the CounterOpinions. Food for Thought. Rants. Categories
All
|