WOW, that's insane! Can you move to a different province in order to get covered?

I only take one prescription for a diuretic as needed and it is fairly inexpensive. My doctor always asks before he prescribes me with expensive medication if I have a drug plan. When I say I don't he gives me sample medications or arranges with his drug rep to have boxes or samples dropped off for me. I was on medication for a few years because of acid reflux and never once did I pay for the drugs I needed and also when I broke my knee I was provided with free non addicting narcotics.

My sister who is a senior has/had cancer and some of her cancer medications are not covered by OHIP but she doesn't have to worry because the Cancer Clinic pays for them so she does not go without. One prescription is $700 a month

Also seniors are covered under a plan and have to pay a small co pay and I think also pays $100 a year which covers them. My sister who has major health issues carries a carry on bag of medications that she needs to take to live. As a senior she she is pretty lucky that she does not have to pay for them all. $100 a year plus the small co-pay is all.

Ontario has the Trillium Drug Plan for low income people without a drug plan. It's not the best plan, but it helps a lot when drug costs are high and you can't get samples. Most everyone I know is able to get samples in this situation, but Trillium is always there. Just tacking this on to Anne's post.

Yes, there is Trillium. Also many doctors do not have samples of certain medications and unfortunately are not always able to get them for patients.

The senior plan - post 65 with the $100 deductible and a co-pay covers only a portion of the cost of the drug - and the list of drugs covered is decreasing (just ask a pharmacist).

My husband turned 65 in Dec. but is still working. However he first had to submit his prescriptions to the Ontario Drug Board - and pay the prorated portion of the $100 annual fee (the full fee is payable each August) and then submit the balance to his office plan. I called the Ontario Drug Board and asked because it seemed backwards to me, but then what can I say?

He has 2 prescriptions - the "senior" plan covers 75% of the cost and he pays the balance. But his office plan only covers up to 90% of generics and has a limited dispensary fee - and he cannot claim the $100 deductible against his drug plan - yet the office drug plan is a taxable benefit to him and he has to pay a reasonably high premium for family coverage (NOT tax deductible by the way).

So not everything is rosy. I am with jasdip on this - many things do not make sense. And of course I have serious issues with generics - good thing I have only one prescription and the name brand is now hard to get since it is no longer being made. I did try the generic form - the fillers were the issue. So while I can get it I am paying for it. A doctor's note would not help my case - if it comes in generic form - end of story.

A young woman I know is covered by Trillium and cannot take the generic form of a particular medication. She had to obtain special approval from Trillium to have the cost of the name brand covered (her doctor etc. had to be involved). Now based on my experience she is concerned that the name brand of the drug might cease to be produced in favour of generics. She was right to be worried - she checked. It hasn't happened yet but it will be in the near future.

In my case since I am paying anyway I could fill my yearly prescription and just pay myself - but the pills have an expiry date - as in the active part of the meds. The current batch expires May, 2014. My pharmacist is trying to source a later dated batch for me but the pills are on back-order - if they even show up - and it might take months. I expect this to be the last batch if I can get it.

Plan B pill did not work - my doctor is about to have samples! I took only one and that was one too many.

There certainly is no 'free lunch'.

Here in the US my DH and I pay a minimum of $9000 a year beyond what Medicare pays for our health coverage and wildly overpriced medications. Each of our secondary health policies to Medicare has a $2110 deductible. Thus, our exposure is over $13,000, and we will pay more as prescription prices rise, uncontrolled.

My DH takes two prescriptions, and I take one. One of my DH's prescriptions cost $21/day when it was filled for 90 days in January. I don't know how high it will go by the end of the year. His other prescription has doubled to over $8/day between January and March. All three of these are maintenance medications; none is discretionary. I'm not including the odd antibiotic or arthritis medication.

My DH's former employer has established a $3000 stipend towards our premium costs, but few retirees have that assistance.

Without the costs for these three prescriptions, we two are paying pay $5200 in premiums -- and have another $4220 liability from deductibles.

Perhaps some of our Canadian members would detail what they pay for health care coverage and what they pay for their medications? I doubt anyone outside of the US sees a retail cost of $3000/year for Advair -- my asthma medication, for which there will never be a cheaper generic; Glaxo has seen to that.

And there was a news article on yet another cancer victim. 25-yr old with brain cancer, on oral meds. The spokesperson said the same thing as my original post.

Ontario provincial drug plan discriminates against oral meds. If her chemo was with an iv it would be covered.
WTH is wrong with this province??

I think in Alberta, all medications given to you while a patient in a hospital is covered. But once you're an out patient, you pay. I know a lady who needs Humira for her Chrohns. She works for the same chain I do. Our coverage normally does not cover Humira. But she applied for 'special treatment" (I'm brain dead right now and know thats not the right term LOL), and she gets it covered. It's $1500 per box, and I believe there are two shots per box. Another co-worker has a son with the same condition. He takes Remecade for it. Which is covered by our health care coverage THROUGH WORK. Alberta Health Care does not cover this. He turns 21 soon, and once he does it will no longer be covered. And he works part time for us, so he isn't able to get coverage. But, I think there is somewhere he can apply through the government to get his treatments covered.

We see on the news quite often where people need certain medications to live. And it's not covered by the government or their benefits through work.

The sad thing is: go to Cuba. All medications are dirt cheap. And available to anyone who is there, whether or not you're a citizen. That's how it should be everywhere.

Yeah, the Cubans are so happy with their lives and their medical care, the country's population (excepting high level party functionaries) would evacuate within 60 days if the dictatorship's prohibition on foreign travel and emigration were lifted.

Be careful what you wish for.

I didn't say I wanted to move to Cuba. I said the price of drugs is ridiculously cheap there, and should be that way everywhere.

The price of prescription medications should be controlled everywhere. There should be no advertising of prescription medications, as is the law in every first world nation except the US and New Zealand.

Manufacturing monopolies on prescription meds should be outlawed. Galaxo bought out the maker of one of the two ingredients in Advair shortly after they started profiting from it more than ten years ago. I used to be able to buy each ingredient separately at a reasonable cost. Glaxo's lawyers have made sure there will never be a generic or low-cost option to their $250/month Advair.