Should public drug plans be based on age or income? /

Another concern for policymakers is the impact Dr awbacks to Age-Based Plans of imposing some of the drug-cost burden on the Age-based plans face a number of challenges. [...] In practice, however, the evidence of success on this front is With the aim in mind of ensuring access to drugs mixed due to the way in which public subsidies are based on need and not ability to pay,6 one common reduced with income and based on one’s annual solution is to offer public coverage for individuals drug needs (See Box A for a discussion of the on social assistance.7 However, drug benef [...] Recognition of the challenges in transitioning from social assistance led in 2007 to the creation of the federal working income tax benefit, which offers tax relief for low-income workers to help reduce the welfare wall and encourage more Canadians to enter the workplace. [...] While some of the savings in terms of the slower growth of drug costs came from factors beyond the Fair Pharmacare in B. C. scope of the reforms, the bulk of the reductions was accomplished by wealthy seniors paying a greater Prior to 2003, B. C. had a public drug plan that share of their health costs (Morgan et al. [...] The The effect of the New Brunswick’s new drug plan Quebec experience should serve as a reminder that on the welfare wall will depend on a household’s self-sufficiency in practice requires governments to income level and drug needs.