What I've found extremely interesting so far is the disparity between coverage of dementia drugs under provincial Pharmacare programs across provinces.
British Columbia is one of the few provinces that doesn't cover any of the dementia drugs under its health care policy. But wait, is it not true that the provincial government announced a 78 million dollar, 3 year study (ending this year) on cholinesterase inhibitors that will makes individuals with mild to moderate stages of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) eligible for PharmaCare coverage of medications? Well, as with any good study, the 'Alzheimer's Drug Therapy Initiative' (ADTI) only allows coverage for certain patients and for a certain number, in this case, 25,000 British Columbians. While it appears to be a step in the right direction, it doesn't necessarily mean full coverage for all British Columbians. In fact, surprisingly little has been written or released about ADTI since its inception in October 2007. A quick Google search only brings up the BC Ministry websites and the Alzheimer's Society of Canada. Why has BC refused to follow suit when most of the other provinces covered these dementia drugs? Was it a valid decision? Stay tuned as I dig through this to find out more about the ADTI and do some comparisons between other provinces.
British Columbia is one of the few provinces that doesn't cover any of the dementia drugs under its health care policy. But wait, is it not true that the provincial government announced a 78 million dollar, 3 year study (ending this year) on cholinesterase inhibitors that will makes individuals with mild to moderate stages of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) eligible for PharmaCare coverage of medications? Well, as with any good study, the 'Alzheimer's Drug Therapy Initiative' (ADTI) only allows coverage for certain patients and for a certain number, in this case, 25,000 British Columbians. While it appears to be a step in the right direction, it doesn't necessarily mean full coverage for all British Columbians. In fact, surprisingly little has been written or released about ADTI since its inception in October 2007. A quick Google search only brings up the BC Ministry websites and the Alzheimer's Society of Canada. Why has BC refused to follow suit when most of the other provinces covered these dementia drugs? Was it a valid decision? Stay tuned as I dig through this to find out more about the ADTI and do some comparisons between other provinces.
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