Advocates renew call for catastrophic drug plan

Health-care advocates are calling on the P.E.I. government to fulfil a commitment to provide universal catastrophic drug coverage.

P.E.I. and New Brunswick remain the only two provinces in Canada without a catastrophic drug program. Such programs come into effect when a drug costs more than three to five per cent of a person's income.

There are currently 27 drug programs paid for by the provincial government and eligibility is based on income and age.

Jessesar MacNeil, a spokeswoman for the P.E.I. Health Charities Network, said about 25 per cent of Islanders don't have public or private drug coverage.

For people with serious illness who don't have drug coverage, it can cost thousands of dollars each year, she said, which could eat up money otherwise used for savings, groceries and mortgages.

"In some cases the drugs aren't either on the high-cost drug program or the co-pay is still too high for them to pay," said Jessesar.

"In some cases people do go without their treatments."

Last year, Health Minister Carolyn Bertram said it would be another year before the government completed a review of its pharmaceutical program.

On Thursday she said the federal government had not co-operated in the province's quest to develop a catastrophic drug program.

"When we talk about catastrophic drug programs we continue to ask the federal government and we've stood by that since 2007, to request the federal government as a smaller jurisdiction in Canada to help support us," said Bertram.

"The federal government has stepped away from that support."