Alward’s Drug Plan: Sticking it to the Working Poor

By André Faust

The New Brunswick a mandatory drug plan was introduced by David Alward at the last setting of the legislature, on the surface it looks like it’s a very good plan because it looks like a plan to help New Brunswickers avoid cost of catastrophic drug and to ensure that prescription drug insurance is available to every New Brunswicker. In this respect it looks like the sheep.

The intent of the plan is to give every New Brunswicker access to a drug insurance plan which in this case will be administered by Blue Cross. Any New Brunswick or who is not covered under any insurance plans will be required to pay a premium and the rate of that premium is determined by the annual income of each person. According to the plan to lower the income the lower the premium the higher the income the higher the premium, which on the surface seems to be a fair way of distributing the premiums among the wage spectrum. However, when you look at the premium formula in terms of percentages a different story is told.