The Drug Wars of Ontario – April 2010

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Today’s Blog Post

The Drug Wars of Ontario – April 2010
I am trying desperately to understand the cacophony going on in our province’s Drug Wars. And as you read this in your province you may not have heard of what we are now facing in Ontario. I hadn’t heard about it until late last week and then didn’t understand what the dickens was going on either… until reading a bit more(but I may not understand yet either).

No this is not about Heroin or Crack – it is about the kind of drugs that most other people have to take… or want to take… or are forced to take. Stuff like headache pills, cholesterol reducing pills and sleep inducing pills that a pharmacist fills for you. It is not about the over the counter drugs but rather about the behind the counter dispensed drugs.

There are two categories of pills in our province – the cheaper ones, the Generic, and the more expensive ones, the Brand Names.

From what I have gleaned so far our present Minister of Health, Deb Matthews, has brought down a piece of legislation that is making the Generic drug pricing fall from 50% of the Brand Name drug price to 25%. Kaboom! The Prices will fall very soon.

The Government already has in place a tighter control of the use of which kind of Drug that is dispensed. Under the ODP(Trillium) they have directions given to the Doctor that he or she must try the Generic first to see if it produces the needed response… then if it does not… the expensive stuff can be prescribed.

But now they are ordering that the cheaper stuff will need to be cheaper still by 50% of the price that it was at last week – or 25% of the Brand Name price.

I think I have that right.

When I went to the Shoppers Drug Store this past week I noticed a fairly ritzy coloured card laying on the pharmacist’s counter. It was encouraging me to take one, sign it and then fire it off to Deb Matthews, the politician, warning her that you are not happy with her decision.

For my part I had no idea that there was even a problem… let alone a War that already had the large Shoppers Drug Mart locking serious horns with Deb. In fact if you haven’t heard the Shoppers folks have cut off Deb’s people from getting their drugs at just any time they would like to… to a more restricted hours that are more normal… like other stores. Up to now Shoppers has been open in our area almost 18 hours a day.

To get Deb’s attention they are going to stick it to Deb’s voters. And the Shoppers Drug Mart people have carefully calculated that this just might do the trick.

Now for most outside of Ontario this still makes little or no sense yet. What affect does it have on you? Well… most of the other provinces pretty much follow what Ontario does in pricing of their drugs. Quebec and Manitoba’s policy peg their drug selling rate in comparison to Ontario and on Ontario’s pricing. And without accurate knowledge I am guessing that the provinces east and west of these three pretty much are tied to what happens to the province next to them.

If you don’t live in Ontario and are older you may not know that all Seniors in Ontario have most of their drug costs paid for. All the Senior needs to do is pay a $100 fee in August and then all the drugs they use for the year are only charged a dispensing fee of one a month per drug needed.

In other words my 89 year old mother, that moved to Ontario from Saskatchewan 3 years ago, now has her approximate 10 perscription of pills per week paid for each month after she pays her $100 in August… then each month she only pays $6.11 per prescription per month. Complicated?

In Saskatchewan she was paying for the dispensing fee and the drug costs at about $3500 a year. In Ontario it is a fraction of that.

In Ontario we have a humungous amount of Seniors and the next generation of Boomers pushing their parents out of the way… and all needing excessive amounts of prescriptions… by the truck load.

AND GUESS WHAT… the Ontario Government is paying out wads of money to keep its “getting older by the day” Senior Population!!! Cutting back on the set price just makes a whack of sense.

Does that help your understanding?

So why the War?

Well by cutting the Shoppers Drug Mart(and all the others) piece of the pie down to a lot lower number their profit margin goes poof. So they say. By getting the shopper in Shopper’s Drug Mart and all the other drug stores upset with them… they hope to get Dear Deb Matthews to change her mind… and drop the idea. But reading about Dear Deb – I kind of think that aint going to happen.

There is a hidden part of this coded conversation between Drug Stores and Government. That hidden part is the Big Pharma (a created name for the Mega Drug Producers) that design and make the drugs for the Drug Stores. They forced the Canadian Government first to do it their way and back off or they would leave Quebec. Then they did the same to the Ontario Government by threatening to leave Ontario.

The Ontario Government and even Dear Deb won’t engage these companies in a conflict again… but they will take on – or pick on – the guys that sell what the Big Pharma makes… and stick it to them… which eventually sticks it to me… and you.

But what is new? They pretty much have been doing that to me all along anyway.

When I get gas for my vehicle I am getting the STICK for about 75 cents to 85 cents of the 97 cents of the gas I buy.

When my friend buys his cigarettes he gets the STICK for about 90% of the cost of the thing he buys.

When I walk out of any store I have to realize that I am getting the STICK for $13 extra in my province of every $100 I spend.

In fact my whole being is right full of STICK HOLES!
This is already far too long of a Blog… so I offer these solutions to settle things down in this War. Here they are…

Make a Law in Canada that the Big Pharma groups can leave Ontario and or Quebec only if they move the companies to Saskatchewan or Manitoba in Mosquito season. And if that is not to their liking they MUST MOVE TO THE YUKON! Costs of doing business in all three places will go up and there are less Golf Courses there for Fat Cat Executives to play on!!!

If the Shoppers Drug Mart wants to close earlier so be it. Most Seniors that I know do not shop after the dinner time anyway. They have their PJs on by 8 PM and are already yawning by 8:30 PM… or gonzo in the big comfy chair.

If the Pharmacist doesn’t like the cut in pay… sending him over to talk to me… and the other Seniors that received a drastic let down to their present fixed income when they retired.

And if they really don’t like working here in Ontario… catch a ride to the Yukon or Saskatchewan or Manitoba in Black Fly and Mosquito season.

My Granddaughter simply looks at the issue at hand and states, “Suck it up Princess”.

Dear Deb will stick it to the Drug Stores in May.
Dear Dalton will stick it to me with the HST in July.

And the Dear Folk of Ontario will be expected to VOTE for a Government in October.

Do you think someone will STICK IT TO SOMEONE ELSE – somewhere along the line?

Yikes – I think that I understand now. I am going to go cut a STICK today. Yahoo.

~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/

Source:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Ontario+drug+plan+could+have+ripple+effect/2785779/story.html
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/794819--walkom-ontario-s-phony-war-against-druggists
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/796614--olive-more-than-meets-the-eye-in-pharmacy-fight
http://www.nupge.ca/content/ontario-drug-changes-cut-employer-costs-opseu
http://www.cnw.ca/en/releases/archive/April2010/09/c9199.html