Trillium Drug Program can help

BY FAZAAD BACCHUS

Struggling with high prescription costs and don’t know where to go, perhaps Trillium might be your answer. If you have high prescription drug costs compared to your household income you might qualify for the Trillium Drug Program. So, what is Trillium? Well, it’s a drug program which covers more than 4,400 prescription drugs and it is only available to Ontarians to help pay for their high prescription drug costs.

You only are eligible to apply if you:

• have a valid Ontario health card number (that means you must have been living as a resident for at least three months in Canada).
• do not already qualify for the Ontario Drug Benefit Program (for example, you are not enrolled in a program such as Ontario Works)
• do not have an insurance plan that pays for 100% of your drugs
• spend about 4% or more of your after-tax household income on prescription drug costs

So. it seems that most of the criteria is straight forward except for the last one which is calculating the 4% of household income. You can only apply for Trillium benefits on a household income qualification basis and the following persons must be listed as part of your household.

• your spouse, common-law or same-sex partner, if you have lived together for at least one year, are parents together of a child or have entered into a cohabitation agreement together under Section 53 of the Family Law Act
• children, parents and/or grandparents who live with you and rely on you, or you rely on them, for financial support
• children who are students, who may not live with you but rely on you for financial support
• spouse or partner who lives in another province or outside Canada
• spouse or partner who lives in a long-term care home

If you satisfy the criteria above, then you are eligible to apply for benefits. Remember though that your household income will be assessed every year to see if you continue to qualify for benefits. The program runs from August 1^st to July 31^st of the following year and the application can be found online. You will need to mail it into Trillium Drug Program, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care P.O. Box 337 Station D Etobicoke ON M9A 4X3.

Let’s suppose you are diabetic and have qualified for the program, you can ask for a three-month supply of your medication so that you pay less co-payments. Chronic drugs like high blood pressure medication and cholesterol medication are also available on a three-month basis. Not every drug is available for a three-month supply, so you will have to ask the pharmacist.

And what if you are traveling in your province, just like your regular medication, your pharmacist can send a copy to any other pharmacy so that your prescription can be filled, providing you have refills available. But it’s not the same if you are traveling out of province and for a long duration. You would be better off taking a large supply at this time but there are requirements that you have to complete to be able to qualify for this large supply.

So here you have an opportunity to use this benefit, see if you qualify.