Extended pharmacare program axed in Nova Scotia

A program that helps low-income Nova Scotians buy medication is being axed, but the province says funding will still be available to them through different channels.

Three hundred people were enrolled in the extended pharmacare program, which the Department of Community Services announced Tuesday it would be phasing out. The program charged people $5 for prescription co-payments.

Those people will keep their current benefits, according to a news release from the department.

However, new clients who apply for help will be streamed into the family pharmacare program along with 34,000 other Nova Scotians. They will be charged 20 per cent of the cost of each prescription, plus deductibles based on family size and annual income.

If they can't cover those costs, help can come through a special fund in the social assistance program, said department spokesperson Lori Errington.

"The social worker can have Community Services assist with the cost of co-payments on prescriptions as a 'special need,'" she wrote in an email.

"Say you're on [social assistance] and needed a walking cast or to get a tooth pulled or some other necessary expense — you can have that covered as a 'special need' over and above your regular monthly payment."

Discontinuing the current program is a way to streamline services, leaving all the province's pharmacare services managed by the Department of Health and Wellness, said Errington.

The extended pharmacare program, created in 2001, predated the family pharmacare program by seven years. Enrolment has declined by about 10 per cent every year to about 70 people annually in the last few years, said Errington.

Its clients didn't qualify for income assistance, but still struggled to pay their drug costs, said the release. That included people with disabilities and children in the child welfare program.