A local seniors’ group is happy to hear that the province is delaying the rollout of its controversial drug plan and is hoping the delay becomes permanent.
Health and Wellness Minister Gene Zwozdesky announced Wednesday that he was delaying the start of a new seniors’ drug plan that was slated to take effect July 1. The government needs more time to change regulations and align the program with other seniors’ programs, said Zwozdesky.
He wouldn’t say whether or not the plan would eventually roll out as originally announced last April or whether there would be changes. Nor would he say how long the delay would be.
“All I am saying at this point is this — we are not ready to proceed with the plan as was envisioned because more time is needed to look at some of the additional ramifications,” Zwozdesky said.
Dick Tansey, chair of the local chapter of Seniors United Now, thinks the delay is a precursor to dropping the program altogether.
“I think the government is getting pretty hammered these days with polls and everything,” Tansey said. “The last thing they want to be doing is something that’s going to turn the voters against them, the senior voters especially. This would certainly have done that.”
The existing drug plan, which sees seniors pay 30 per cent of each prescription’s cost to a maximum of $25 per prescription, will continue normally, Zwozdesky said.
Changing seniors’ drug coverage has been controversial since former health minister Ron Liepert first announced a new plan in December 2008. Complaints from seniors prompted him to announce a revised plan the following April that would have involved monthly premiums for single seniors earning more than $24,000 or couples making more than $48,000.
Seniors would have paid 20 per cent of the cost of each prescription, to a maximum of $15 per prescription.
Liepert argued that seniors of means should pay a greater share of drug costs but seniors’ groups balked at the idea of basing coverage on income.
“We paid forward with our taxes for those seniors that went ahead of us. We’re just asking that that continue to be the same,” Tansey said.
Zwozdesky’s delay is the fourth policy change he’s doused with cold water since taking over the health portfolio in January.
Earlier this month Zwozdesky announced he was freezing the centralization of Alberta’s ambulance dispatch system while he reviews the progress made to date. In January he announced a review of bed closures in Edmonton and Calgary hospitals and at Alberta Hospital.
NDP MLA Rachel Notley thinks the latest delay is strictly a political move.
“Politics are going to be the key determination of whether we see this plan come back in some other form,” she said.
Seniors’ groups, along with Friends of Medicare and Public Interest Alberta, will be pushing for the plan to be scrapped altogether, Tansey said.
“The minute they talk about putting it back again, you know darn well [the outcry is] going to be just as loud as it was before,” he said.
The delay creates an air of confusion and shows the Stelmach government isn’t able to plan for the future, especially in health care, said Alberta Liberal critic Kevin Taft.
“The time for assessment is done,” Taft said. “Seniors have been waiting for answers for months.”
