Columbia Journal- Pharmacare Test Denies Coverage

By Marco Procaccini

The BC Government has postponed its drastic cuts to the provincial Pharmacare plan after a mass rally at the BC Legislature. But the changes will go ahead next year, says BC's Liberal health minister.

Over 2,000 senior citizens rallied at the legislature on Monday, Nov. 25, demanding that new cumbersome application forms to qualify for Pharmacare coverage be scrapped.

Health Minister Colin Hansen says the new forms are being introduced as an income test "to make sure wealthy seniors who can afford to pay for their own prescriptions are doing so, while low income seniors are getting the assistance they need."

But seniors' organizations say the new qualification process is so hard to follow that many senior citizens, especially those with disabilities or chronic illnesses will not be able to get coverage.

"For a government that claims it wants to cut red tape, they seem to be committed to making access to government services more bureaucratic and costly," says Rudy Lawrence, of the Coalition of Senior Citizens' Organizations. "This government just seems determined to deny benefits and services to people who need them."

The government's own cost estimates show that more than 420,000 BC seniors will pay more for their prescriptions thanks to income testing, while only 20,000 will pay less.

The test was to be introduced at the end of this year. But after meeting with seniors' representatives just before the rally, Hansen said he would delay its implementation until the middle of next year.

"If he thinks that delaying this will mean we will accept it later, he's wrong," Lawrence said. "We will be there demanding that it not happen then just as we are now."

Lawrence, a retired accountant, says the Liberals are a grossly irresponsible provincial government due to their fiscal policies.

"When I was an accountant for my credit union, if I had called for cutting members' fees and interest rates without knowing what impact the lost revenue would have on the organization and then cut services to the membership to make up for the loss, I would have been fired," he said. "This is exactly what this government has done with their tax breaks, most of which went to wealthy people who didn't need them. Now they are trying to make it up with huge cuts to public services. They should be fired as well."

The Victoria rally was put together by seniors' groups with the help of health care unions and consumer advocates. Hansen was also greeted by angry seniors, persons with disabilities and health care workers when he showed up for a meeting with corporate executives in Vancouver last Friday.