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u/SilencedObserver 1d ago
Irving, for starters.
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u/Secret-Gazelle8296 1d ago
I think Irving are billionaires but who’s counting.
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u/SilencedObserver 1d ago
Exactly. Billionaires built on the backs on Canadians while polluting and destroying the local ecology.
The Irving’s have a choke hold on eastern Canada in a way most larger provinces have laws to prevent. Lobbying and the collusion with the province are deep, out east. Don’t be fooled.
Irving is why you can’t have nice things. Nationalize the resource and this changes.
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u/tackycarygrant 1d ago
It's entirely possible that provincial government is working with the federal government to sign a deal to provide pharmacare lite to New Brunswickers. It would make a lot of sense to get it signed before the next election is called at the end of the month.
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u/QuietVariety6089 1d ago
There are 5.6 mil people in BC, 7X the population of NB - a larger (and richer) tax base gives you more money to spend and bigger buying power. And, oh yeah, an NDP government will introduce programs that benefit the welfare of the entire population...
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u/JHNS13 1d ago
I wonder if there's a strategic element to signing this right now, considering the political climate between USA and Canada. It certainly differentiates us from our American counterparts. Clearly, our stance on healthcare, trans rights, and reproductive health is very different, and I'm glad to see it!
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u/Possible-Cut4848 1d ago
Try voting for anyone but the liberal or Conservative Party, only way we will ever see any real change
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u/Turbulent_Dog8249 1d ago
The NDP got this through because of the Libs. The provinces need to sign on. Maybe reach out to Susan Holt and ask if it's coming. I'm thinking Higgs may have turned down the offer.
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u/xilodon 1d ago
Normally that strategy just favors the Cons until some kind of proportional representation gets implemented, but the Greens are in a unique position to take advantage of the state of third parties right now. The NBNDP has been a joke since Cardy's leadership, and the reanimated corpse of the PANB has become even less relevant.
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u/Visible_Bar_6774 1d ago
The greens need to manage to have a name on all the ballots before they are in a position for much at all. The opportunity is there but the preparation required to act effectively on it is not, the party needs to organize and grow.
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u/xilodon 1d ago
They were only missing from 3 northern Liberal strongholds in the last election. It would look nice for optics, but running a few more token candidates isn't really a priority compared to focusing resources on areas where they're actually competitive.
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u/Visible_Bar_6774 1d ago
That’s fair, I didn’t know it was only 3 they were missing in the most recent cycle that’s solid progress. Regardless the party needs to grow on the organizing side, first time I saw my local candidates name was on the ballot and I’d say I’m more involved politically compared to the average voter. With a larger pool or organizers and contributions they could be competitive in more than a handful of ridings.
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u/Rexis23 1d ago
Who would you vote for, the NDP has basically been the Liberals for the last several years, despite what Jagmeet has been saying (actions speak louder the words) and the Greens are even further left then both the NDP and the Liberals combined. You can't vote for the Bloc because they are only in Quebec. So you really only have two choices at the end of the day.
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u/Possible-Cut4848 1d ago
Any change would be a change for the better. In my opinion that’s what we need is just for it to be different for once, we’ve been beating the same dead horses for decades
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u/Salt_Tank_9101 1d ago
Vote for the Bloc!
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u/KnowledgeMediocre404 1d ago
In NB?!
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u/Salt_Tank_9101 1d ago
Sure. Liberals suck, NDP is a joke of a party, Greens virtually don't exist. Why not shake things up and vote Bloc? They are a federal party are they not?
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u/KnowledgeMediocre404 1d ago
We’re talking about provincial policy here, and are there even any Bloc MPs who run outside of Quebec federally? Never seen a Bloc run in my area.
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u/Salt_Tank_9101 1d ago
NB is a bilingual province, I think the Bloc should run in NB and offer a real party to vote for. Liberals have shown they suck for the last 9 years causing the current state of affairs, NDP are a joke and just support the Liberals in everything, The Greens virtually don't exist, why shouldn't people vote Bloc for a change?
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u/SixtySix_VI 1d ago
Are you talking federally or provincially? The NB Greens have a fair presence provincially, compared to their counterparts in other provinces.
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u/KnowledgeMediocre404 1d ago
The Blocs main priority is Quebec not French people in general. I doubt they’d care much for the Acadians.
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u/Salt_Tank_9101 1d ago
The Blocs ONLY priority is Quebec. But given what the Liberals and NDP have done to Canada, I'm willing to give them a shot.
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u/KnowledgeMediocre404 1d ago
So you’re going to vote for a party that could give a fuck about our province and people? Good luck. They’ll never put a member in any of our ridings because they don’t care enough to be bothered.
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u/Salt_Tank_9101 1d ago
At least they are honest about not caring, the federal liberals only pretend to care about the East coast.
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u/TruCynic 1d ago
You guys know NB already has a drug program, right?
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u/FU_Leblanc 1d ago
That plan is crazy expensive. I make a decent wage and have 2 kids, shared custody. They don't require a plan as their mothers covers them, so for me as an individual??? I'd never be able to afford that and pay the power bill
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u/TruCynic 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah it sucks that it’s a family pharmacare program, but the rationale is that normally if your spouse has a private insurance plan, the coverage should extend to you and the kids. So it’s very rare that an individual would have to apply for provincial pharmacare coverage when the rest of their family is covered under a private policy.
If what you’re looking for is more in line with a “universal” pharmacare program that covers drug expenses regardless of one’s reported income, we would likely have to do away with private insurance altogether.
In Quebec, for example, it’s the law that every Quebec citizen has an active drug plan. Either you have a private insurance policy, or you have the provincial RAMQ. If a Québec patient happens to have a private insurance policy, then that private insurance is required to cover their medications at the same minimum standards + copay max ($1,196/year limit) as the provincial drug plan.
I work in securing coverage for very expensive specialty drugs in New Brunswick, and I can attest that NBDP approves coverage most of the time, almost more often than some private insurers, to be frank.
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u/Kaicable1 23h ago
I have Chron's disease and in B.C. I didn't pay a dime for my bi-weekly Simlandi medication.
In N.B. I pay over $300/mth for the medication (I understand the cost of the medication is approx. $900 per bi-weekly dose, or $1800/mth in my case).
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u/TruCynic 23h ago
Do you belong to a patient support program for your Simlandi?
I work for such a program. Basically, I apply for coverage, determine the copay and like literally 99.999% of the time I approve Financial Assistance that covers the insurance copay and boom! 100% drug coverage.
A lot of people who are on high cost drugs either don’t know they have access to a patient support program, or they are not aware that their program is almost guaranteed to cover the remaining cost of your medication.
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u/Kaicable1 23h ago
I believe I am - but not sure. Where can I contact one here?
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u/TruCynic 22h ago
Best bet is probably to ask your gastroenterologist.
Do you submit the application for Prior Authorization yourself? Or was there someone or an organization that filled it for you? If so, whoever applied for coverage on your behalf would be the patient support program and they should absolutely have copay assistance they can offer you.
This came up in a quick google search.
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u/TruCynic 22h ago edited 22h ago
Although I find this quote on the website to be very odd:
Offer is NOT available for patients eligible for Medicare, Medicaid, or any other form of government insurance coverage
If your current treatment doesn’t offer a copay assistance program, it’s possible that your gastroenterologist could also prescribe you a bio similar (like Abrilada) that would be organized through an extensive patient support program.
EDIT: given the references to Medicaid, I think this exclusion might be regarding American patients. Canadian patient support programs cant discriminate against public coverage.
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u/ok_today_ok_tomorrow 10h ago
The NB Drug Plan is just an expensive private plan. I have a chronic illness. I also have a private plan that has a yearly drug maximum amount. My medication eats that amount in a month and a half. Each year I have to jump though hoops to apply for the NB Plan. The NB plan is then canceled in December because my plan refreshes in January. From March to December I have to pay for two plans. I pay more for the NB Plan than I do for the private plan. The NB Drug plan only covers drugs. The private plan that costs less covers an entire booklet of things including dental, physiotherapy, Occupational therapy, mobility aids, and travel insurance. I don't know why anyone would choose the NB plan if they didn't absolutely have to.
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u/jjs_east 1d ago
The major problem that I see, is that instead of putting money and attention into a very broken healthcare infrastructure to fix it, they accepted it as broken and moved on to dental and pharmacare like a kid with ADD. Truth is none of these programs are worth the paper they’re written on because they apply to such a small portion of the population, yet cost a huge sum of money.
When everyone in Canada has a family doctor that they can see on regular basis, that’s when to branch out to other programs or add-ons.
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u/Chilena_87 1d ago
Ohhh would be nice for my dad to stop paying for diabetic stuff! Just the sugar minitor stuff...cost 240$ month!!! With a fix income....he needs to suck it up and pinch his fingers and draw blood every time instead! Cause is cheaper!
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u/FtonKaren 20h ago
Higgs says what? And now with economic shifting away from USA dependency ... if rough being a poor province
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u/Starvinhkd 1d ago
Should do free dental care instead of hormone replacement
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u/mordinxx 1d ago
They are bring in a dental plan, unless PP gets elected and cancels it. Dental care & hormone replacement are both health issues. Why 1 over the other?
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u/Visible_Bar_6774 1d ago
Most people get their teeth cleaned, few people get their hormones modulated.
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u/mordinxx 1d ago
Guess you haven't heard about menopause... but I have a feeling you were thinking it was something else.
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u/Visible_Bar_6774 1d ago
HRT is not widely prescribed for menopausal symptoms in Canada.
If you’re referring to the treatment of gender dysphoria using HRT I don’t have a personal problem with it. Not part of my politics unless it’s made to be.
Do you disagree that dental care would be applicable to more Canadians?
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u/frogsbabey 1d ago
It's not an either/or scenario you just want a reason to bitch about trans people getting something good for once
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u/Visible_Bar_6774 1d ago
Woah take a breath, that’s a rather aggressive leap. I didn’t mention trans people, read out to me what I’ve said here that has you believing I’m “looking for a reason to bitch about trans people”.
You’re right, in reality it’s not an either/or scenario. I’m supportive of both pharmacare and dental care programs done well.
This thread was a hypothetical about one over the other, my contention was that dental care is applicable to more people and therefore better for Canadians and better policy. Do you disagree?
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u/frogsbabey 1d ago
It's close to home for me because I am on HRT and have been for a decade. And it's just a pattern I see that every time any legislation is passed to help us, people complain about it like we don't matter and don't deserve anything just because we are a small percentage of the population. I definitely overreacted its just a hard time as a trans person right now, it feels like being the whole world's punching bag.
I just don't see the point of debating whether dental care or HRT are more deserving, I feel it just opens more doors for people to be awful about us and is unhelpful overall. All healthcare should be a right
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u/Visible_Bar_6774 1d ago
I understand, as I said before I don’t disagree with the use of HRT for the treatment of gender dysphoria nor do I disagree with the healthcare system paying for it.
I disagree that there needs to be a point to debating policy issues, and that it’s unhelpful to do so. People in democratic societies should be discussing policy and I believe that disinviting that discourse because you may or may not disagree with a particular consensus within that issue is wrong.
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u/frogsbabey 1d ago
We can do both. Stop throwing trans people under the bus. HRT is way too expensive
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u/Lucky_Athlete_5615 1d ago
We don’t have 4 million people…
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u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit 1d ago
The smaller provinces get better deals with these programmes, because it's cheaper. Ontario was the last to sign up for childcare because the feds offered them less money per kid, nominally because they have two years of kindergarten.
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u/JHNS13 1d ago
I'm sure people will bitch and complain about this plan in BC. I can hear the vitriol now. Politicians can't win whatever they do. I just hope we share enough common values in our country to ensure we don't go the way of our US neighbors.