HEALTH & WELLNESS MINISTER LEO GLAVINE
“In opposition the Liberals pretended to care about seniors, but now we know it was all a sham to get elected.”
Revised: NDP staffer Mark Laventure tells SCT previous Pharmacare premium increase happened in 2007 under PCs, when Chris D'Entremont was health minister
In a pre-dawn news release Monday, PC leader Jamie Baillie asks Health minister Leo Glavine “Why is it fair for seniors to be paying more in premiums and co-pays than they should when the government continues to pay less?” The question, says Baillie is the same asked in question period in 2013, when the former NDP government was accused of overcharging premiums for the Seniors’ Pharmacare program. "Leo Glavine," says the release, "was quick to pounce."
“In opposition the Liberals pretended to care about seniors, but now we know it was all a sham to get elected,” says Baillie. “The same Liberals who complained about premium increases under the NDP are now planning to take more from seniors than ever. It’s even more proof seniors just can’t trust the Liberals.”
In April, 2013, Glavine apparently tabled documents suggesting that under the NDP, the share of the program seniors pay for went from 28.4 to 29.2 to 32 per cent. The numbers released by the Liberals on Thursday show seniors, says the release, will be paying upwards of 37 per cent next year. Up to that point, the cost of the program was split between the province and seniors at a rate of 75:25.
“Seniors have been ripped off by two successive governments now and they’re tired of the lies and the dishonesty,” says Baillie. “The Liberals should immediately halt their changes to the Seniors’ Pharmacare program.”
Baillie says the flip flops and dishonest tactics are resulting in serious questions about the way Premier McNeil and his Health Minister do business.
Both the PC and NDP parties have launched petitions calling on Premier McNeil to press pause on his dishonest Pharmacare changes.
PC Petition: http://pcparty.ns.ca/stand-up-for-seniors/
NDP petition: nsndp.ca/mcneil-notfair