FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CARP OUTRAGED OVER THE ONTARIO GOVERNMENT'S PLAN

TO RESTRICT DRUG ACCESS FOR SENIORS

Drug Pricing Policies Risk the Health of Ontario Seniors

TORONTO - March 3, 2005 - CARP (Canada's Association for the Fifty-Plus) and many Ontario seniors are concerned that the Ontario government may be introducing restrictive drug-pricing policies - Reference-Based Pricing (RBP) or Maximum Allowable Cost (MAC). These drug-pricing policies will essentially reduce access to higher cost medications in order for the government to save money. For seniors with financial constraints, such policies would force patients to switch from a medication that is working to one they may not tolerate.

The Ontario Drug Benefit (ODB) Plan, the drug program branch of the Ministry of Health, provides drug coverage to over 2.1 million seniors and those on social programs.

"We are asking Premier Dalton McGuinty to consider the health and safety of seniors and not approve a program that will take away effective medications that many seniors rely on," says Lillian Morgenthau, President, CARP. "CARP strongly believes that quality health care is achieved through patients, their physicians and pharmacists making prescribing choices together, not through a government bureaucracy restricting access and choice of medications."

Under these policies, Ontarians who have their drugs paid for by the ODB will have to pay a portion or all of their drug costs out-of-pocket in order to remain on their current medicines. If the person is unable to afford to pay out-of-pocket for a portion of their drug costs, the government will force these people onto the lowest-cost drug alternative designated by the government.

The British Columbia government introduced a drug policy for Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) - a class of drugs used to treat stomach acid related diseases such as chronic heartburn in July 2003 - called 'therapeutic substitution' which, in plain English means 'cheapest drug first.' Under this policy, patients were forced to switch to the newly designated lowest-cost product and all new patients requiring a PPI were automatically prescribed the lowest-cost product. During the first six months after the policy was implemented, 39,000 people in B.C. were forced to take the lowest-cost product. For almost 25 per cent of these people, the cheapest medication did not work or they experienced a reaction and had to switch to another drug, usually back to the one they were taking before they were switched. Treatment failure causes serious health consequences including diarrhea, nausea, headaches, vomiting, chest pain, fatigue and recurrence of the severe heartburn the medication was supposed to treat.

"We know from the B.C. experience that any type of policy which forces patients to take any medication other than the one their doctor recommends will have a drastic health impact on thousands of seniors, poor, and disabled people whose medicines are paid for by the province," says Gail Attara, Executive Director of the Canadian Society of Intestinal Research (CSIR). "It is not about generic substitution, because these medications are chemically different from each other. Just as these medications are different from each other, so are the people who need the medicine to control the symptoms of their disease. Therefore, what works well for one individual may cause side effects in another."

"The Ontario government proposal takes the power to prescribe medications out of the hands of physicians and gives medical responsibility to the government," says Louise Binder, member of the Best Medicines Coalition. "We recognize that cost-effectiveness is important, but consider cost containment policies penny-wise and pound foolish. The Ontario government may be saving a penny or two now with these cost containment schemes, but they will pay a lot more later as the burden shifts to other areas of the healthcare system. Doctors prescribe medication based on their knowledge of the patient and the best evidence-based medicine. The government should not be making this decision for them."

"As a coalition dedicated to people-centred access to the best medicines for all Canadians, we are particularly concerned that the government may harm its seniors and low-income Ontarians by unilaterally adopting a drug pricing policy without stakeholder consultation," says Binder. "Pricing policies will push the burden of drug costs to vulnerable groups who can least afford an increase in cost of medications."

"̀It does not make economic sense to restrict access to a medication that is effectively controlling a disease today, and then pay tomorrow for the consequences of the disease out of control. Tomorrow's costs would include extra doctor visits, diagnostic testing, and hospital stays that are much more expensive than the pennies a day that the ODB plan could hope to save," added Attara. "There are alternative policy solutions available to the government that can address the need to stop rising drug costs and also provide improved quality of patient care. To address these two needs this government should consider the kinds of appropriate use and educational initiatives that have worked for other jurisdictions."

CARP is Canada's Association for the Fifty-Plus. A non-profit organization with 400,000 members across the country, CARP's mission is to promote and protect the rights and quality of life for older Canadians. For further information on CARP initiatives and membership: www.carp.ca [1]