Expensive prescription drugs in Ontario

[danaeris]

mew. So, I know people on welfare and disability here get the trillium drug plan, which is based on percentage of income.

But my drug plan, for instance, is only covering 80% of drug costs, which is actually a fair amount right now. If I had one of these conditions that cost thousands for meds, would I be in the same boat as these people in the states are in? Or maybe I'd qualify for Trillium at that point.

Just wondering if we have the same issue in Canada, or not:
http://drdenny.livejournal.com/77712.html

Comments

[phoenix-keika.livejournal.com]

From working at the pharmacy I know that there's a lot of ways around that in Ontario. There's a whole bunch of different forms that if your doctor actually takes the time to fill them out, you can get drugs that aren't on the Trillium list covered by the government. The two specific things that spring to mind are a Section 8 (which I'm not too sure on) and a Limited Use (which gives you coverage for a drug for a very specific reason, for a limited time. Eg: Your standard ulcer drug isn't working, so you can get an "LU" for a different one that isn't normally covered, but it only lasts 1 year). Of course these are abused all the time, but at least it's a possibility. I think there's also special measures for specific illnesses (I'm think Cancer, HIV/AIDS, things like that) but I'm not sure about that, that might be federal assistance versus provincial.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

I looked into Trillium after my husband got laid off and we lost our drug plan. Based it on your income from 2 years ago (which would have sucked for us, since he was working 2 years ago and isn't now), if you spend more than 4% of your income on drugs, they will cover whatever you spend after that amount.

Right about then I found a job with a drug plan that pays for 80% of my drugs, and since the remaining 20% isn't 4% of our income 2 years ago, I didn't get to the details of which drugs are and aren't covered.