Retired teachers, civil servants want seniors' pharmacare changes scrapped

Some of the groups the Nova Scotia government consulted before changing the provincial drug plan for seniors are now squarely against those changes.

Two of them, the Retired Teachers Organization and the Nova Scotia Government Retired Employees Association, want the government to go back to the drawing board. Together both groups represent about 25,000 retirees.

"I think these changes go too far, too soon," said Bernard Conrad, president of government employees association.

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Jim Kavanaugh, president of the teachers group, said his members are also going to be hit hard by the premium increase.

"Thousands of them will see, at least, their premiums double," he said. "That's not reasonable to do that in one fell swoop."

Kavanaugh and Conrad said although the government talked about what might be coming, it didn't use specific numbers or share figures on the financial health of the program.

The provincial government released a five-year projection for the remodeled program just last week.

Meeting scheduled

Retired teachers are so upset the teachers group is even exploring the possibility of setting up its own drug plan.

"I've gotten all kinds of emails and calls from retired teachers asking the Retired Teachers Organization to begin looking for an alternate drug program," said Kavanaugh. "In fact we've started that process."

Representatives from nine seniors groups are scheduled to meet with provincial officials on Wednesday to discuss the coming changes.

Conrad and Kavanaugh will be there to push for those changes to be scrapped.