QUEBEC - After months of fighting calls for changes to his controversial drug-insurance plan, Health Minister Jean Rochon backed down yesterday and tabled amendments designed to make it easier for welfare recipients and seniors to afford their prescriptions.
Starting July 1 under the new bill, the 3 million people insured under Quebec's Régie de l'Assurance Maladie's drug-insurance plan, including welfare recipients and seniors, will have a monthly cap on their drug payments rather than a quarterly one.
Rochon estimates the changes will cost the government an additional $33 million a year.
The minister's announcement comes two weeks after Quebec's ombudsman, Daniel Jacoby, again publicly criticized the way the government is running the new drug-insurance plan, saying his office has received 800 complaints this year.
But groups who deal with patients say Rochon's move is a Band-Aid solution that won't cure the problem. Many welfare recipients and seniors just don't have the money to pay their share of the drug-insurance plan - regardless of the frequency of payments.
"This is window-dressing," said Dr. Paul Saba, who decided to fight the program after seeing the effect it had on some of his patients.
"It's really not acceptable."
Saba said his group will go ahead with plans to present a 3,500-name petition to the National Assembly on Tuesday, calling for the government to reinstate its former drug-insurance plan, with annual maximum charges of $100 for seniors and free medication for psychiatric patients who receive welfare.
In January, the new plan went into effect, designed to ensure that everyone in the province has access to affordable drug insurance.
But it has come under attack for its effects on welfare recipients and seniors, who used to get medications for $2 per prescription. The news media have regularly featured reports on low-income Quebecers who say the plan has forced them to choose between food and medicines.
For months, Rochon has played down or dismissed the complaints. When questioned in the legislature this year, he suggested many people should learn to budget their finances better.
Yesterday, however, he conceded there was a problem and outlined what he plans to do about it.
Under the changes, the maximum payments for beneficiaries will remain the same but will be calculated monthly instead of quarterly. For example, the maximum combined premium and deductible payment for a welfare recipient, or a 65-year-old receiving the maximum guaranteed-income supplement, would be $16.67 a month instead of $50 for three months.
For seniors receiving a partial income supplement, it will be $41.67 a month instead of $125 quarterly. And for seniors who aren't getting an income supplement, it will be $62.50 a month instead of quarterly limits of $187.50.
Rochon said he was always ready to improve the plan. In the case of the premiums, however, he wanted to make sure that the change was feasible and will solve the problem.
Yesterday, however, the people dealing with those most affected by the plan were skeptical.
"I don't think it's going to change very much," said Tommy Kulczyk, director of emergency services for Sun Youth, which is running a program that pays half of the patients' contribution on behalf of low-income seniors.
Kulczyk said there are 650 seniors and 100 psychiatric patients in the program, plus another 30 to 40 people on a waiting list.
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Actualités sur la santé Dernière mise à jour par la Presse Canadienne (PC)
à 22h54 HAE, 1er avril 2000.
17 novembre 1999 M. Bergman: M. le Président, le 14 octobre, Mgr Hutchison, l'évêque anglican de Montréal, écrivait, et
je cite: «The lack of nurses and aides in hospitals, as well as the poor quality of food, means that an
hospital is not necessarily a place of healing but of weakening, due to lack of attention to patients who
may need to be encouraged to eat.» Et, le 5 novembre, lors d'une conférence sur la malnutrition, le Dr
Paul Saba a dit, et je cite: «Plus de la moitié de nos aînés arrivent aux urgences mal nourris. Ils quittent les
hôpitaux encore plus mal nourris qu'à leur arrivée.»
26 November 1998 "Hospitals closed, nursing positions cut, malnutrition of seniors--we've
been living a public health tragedy," says Dr. Paul Saba of the Physicians
for Social Justice. Shortages of personnel and equipment mean that there
are long waiting lists for nonemergency operations at most Quebec
hospitals and relatives are increasingly obliged to provide auxilliary care,
in and out of hospitals.
"You've seen the statistics - hospitals closed, nursing positions cut, malnutrition
of seniors - we've been living a public health tragedy," said Dr. Paul Saba of
Physicians for Social Justice.
Répondant à l'invitation du Dr Paul Saba, de la Coalition des médecins pour la justice sociale des
centaines de médecins ont participé aux lignes de piquetage dans au moins 27 hôpitaux. Selon le Dr.
Réal Barrette de l'hôpital Notre-Dame, la participation aurait peut-être été plus grande si la journée
n'avait pas été fériée, au lendemain de la Fête du Canada.
CMAJ 2000;162:243-56 "They're trying to prepare the public for less treatment or no treatment at all for certain vulnerable groups like senior citizens," warned Dr. Paul
Saba, president of the Coalition of Physicians for Social Justice. "This is a
very dangerous precedent." He called this type of triage a slippery slope
and stated emphatically that "all life is of value."
