Entering a new year, especially in January, a lot of customers have encountered this situation when they pick up medications from their pharmacies. We always explain to our customers, it is not necessarily there is no coverage, it’s very likely that coverage has not started yet.
To understand whether you can enjoy Pharmacare coverage for your medications, you must first understand the BC government’s Fair Pharmacare program.
To enjoy government coverage (that is Pharmacare) when buying prescription drugs in British Columbia, you must be a British Columbia citizen and must be registered with FairPharmacare. (You can register online at https://my.gov.bc.ca/fpcare/registration or by calling 1-800-663-7100).
After registration, when you have your prescriptions filled at any BC pharmacy, the pharmacy must report the information of each drug on the prescription to the BC Health Department and the Federal Tax Department. If the prescription drug is covered by the BC government (not all drugs are covered by the provincial government), ), then the price of each prescription you pay will be accumulated towards your deductible automatically.
There are two levels of deductibles. The first deductible is usually 3% of the household income two years ago (i.e. the total taxable income of the husband and wife), and the second deductible is usually 4% of the household income two years ago.
After paying off the first deductible, and if your prescription medication is covered by the BC Pharmacare, the government will cover 70% of the total drug cost. If you continue to buy prescriptions, after paying off the second-tier deductible, Pharmacare will cover 100% of the total drug cost. Please note that different income and age groups may have different deductibles. Please visit the government’s Fair Pharmacare website for details (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov).
A lot of our retired customers always puzzle why they have a deductible when they have no active working income. Please note Pharmacare also counts RRSP withdrawal, old age pension, investment dividends, .. etc as income as well. Due to privacy concern, Pharmacare will not tell pharmacies about their patients' information. Hence, If you do not understand why you have a deductible, or why your deductible is pushed up, you can call Fair Pharmacare: 1-800-663-7100