Complaints from seniors leads to possible course correction on drug changes

Premier Stephen McNeil appeared to have a change of heart Thursday, just two days after he said his government would "continue to proceed" on pharmacare changes.

Speaking to reporters after his weekly cabinet meeting McNeil said, "We've agreed to reassess and say is there another way, is there a better way to do this?"

The softening of the province's hard line against changes signals the government's initial pharmacare reforms will likely be modified.

Meeting with seniors

On Wednesday, representatives from nine seniors' groups met with high-ranking government officials to discuss what they saw as the unfairness of some of the coming changes. They highlighted the fact senior couples enrolled in the program will pay a different premium than seniors who are single.

It's one of the issues McNeil said the province is now examining.

"There are couples who are just over the threshold who when you start putting their incomes together are paying a substantial portion," he said. "So we've said to them we would look at that and is there another way to deliver this to achieve the same objective."

Another irritant is the fact some seniors will see their premiums almost triple come April.

"We said we would look at is there a way we can do that differently," said McNeil. "We haven't landed on anything. We just said we would look at it."

McNeil's aunt called him

The change of tone came two days after the premier took a hard line against further changes to the program.

"We don't see any need to make any of the changes at this point," he said on Tuesday.

On Thursday, McNeil went out of his way to praise those who have contacted him personally.

"I can tell you I've been extremely impressed by the citizens who have reached out to me directly or to my office," he said.

McNeil said many of them, including his 80-year-old aunt, have told him about how the changes will affect their personal situation.

"I believe it's my responsibility, when I hear that as often as I've heard it, [to listen] in a very thoughtful way and to see if there is a way we can work together," he said. "[We want] to achieve not only our objective but I think the desire of all people to make sure everyone has access to these programs in a fair way."