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The ink is barely dry on last week’s Ontario budget and already Premier Kathleen Wynne is conceding the possibility that her government didn’t “get it right” on the sensitive issue of prescription drugs for seniors.
She’s correct: making most seniors pay more for their prescriptions is a wrong-headed approach and the sooner the government backs away from it, the better.
It’s the biggest flaw in what was generally a well-crafted budget, considering Ontario’s difficult financial situation.
To give the government credit, it was trying to help out the very poorest seniors with their prescription costs. It raised the low-income threshold for singles from $16,018 a year to $19,300. That means 173,000 more seniors won’t have to pay any deductible for their drugs.
Read the full Editorial from the Toronto Star