You will still get coverage with such a condition. If you obtain via your employer you won't feel the pain, they will. I changed from Employer benefits to my own (started working for myself) and, on the basis of my insulin, Blue Cross took me out of the regular group coverage and I have to pay an increased premium. As it is tax deductible I am not too concerned.

I cannot ge the complete Lantus pens here like I used to in England. Instead, I obtain the cartridges a la Novorapid.

I take 32 of lantus and approx 45 of Novorapid daily. The Lantus works out at around $180 per month, with Novorapid about $60. Novorapid is covered by Blue Cross, Lantus isn't. Both were with my employer's scheme.

Each province does have a Prescription Drug Plan of some sort. Income needn't necessarily be low; high drugs costs could do it.

Several of the Province schemes are called Pharmacare but they don't necessarily work the same way. With some you pay a percentage of the drugs cost while elsewhere you pay no more than a percentage of your income. Another province you pay $4 per drug while in the next one you pay the pharmacy processing fee.

I'll just post the link again if I can find it.

Here we go. On the left you can click to check the different schemes in operation.

They will, I've been doing it for years. It might be a policy they have (I wouldn't be surprised) but my GP used to issue me a one-year renewal and last time he did a two-year renewal. I can't see how they would know, the pharmacy submits the claim, if you have valid coverage, it's accepted. If you don't have, it's not accepted. Simple as that.

The three-month residency thing until you get coverage was scrapped a couple of years ago btw, when the healthcare premiums were scrapped.

Oooh, this is a touchy subject with me. Lantus isn't covered in Alberta and I'm told it's not covered anywhere else, although I have a hard time believing it. The total BS reason why it's not covered is that Health Canada has never done any studies on whether it works or not, ergo, no provincial plan will cover it. At least not in Alberta. They can optionally look at international studies but they are not required to under the Health Act, so they choose not to and they choose not to cover it. So you have to pay the full retail price, unless your employer has a particularly generous group plan that covers it (good luck with that - there are a few that cover the test strips at least or pay part of the cost).

By far the cheapest place to buy drugs that I've found is Safeway, plus you get Air Mile points, I actually know someone in the US who is suffering from a severe form of cancer and he flies here, goes to Safeway, stocks up with thousands of dollars worth of drugs and then he can use the air mile points he's just collected to fly home!

And if you're wondering why he would do that, this gives you the reason why:

10ml vial of NovoRapid insulin:

Safeway (Canada) - $30
London Drugs (Canada) - $37
Shopper's Drug Mart (Canada) - $38.50
Wal-Mart (US) - $120
CVS Pharmacy (US) - $123

And bear in mind those last two are in US dollars. They actually have coach trips at the weekend from Great Falls to Lethbridge so that seniors can go up there and get their prescriptions filled, I was sat at Coutts once watching all these doddery old people walk into secondary inspection and wondering why until they told me.

NovoRapid is covered by provincial prescription plans at least. Although for example in Alberta I'm not sure there's any point since they jacked up the price to $762 pa for the non-group plan. You get covered for anything over $25, so if you buy several bottles at a time you get a discount but I can't find a pharmacy that will sell me more than three at a time. I worked out yesterday that I'd actually be about $40 behind by using ABC non-group coverage.

FWIW, I find most diabetics here are still living in the dark ages and are using Humilin R and Humilin NPH because (a) they're cheap and (b) they're covered.

My GP and Specialist both will write prescriptions for 1 year but the pharmacy I deal with will not give out more than three months worth of pills at any one time if you are covered by Alberta Blue Cross. They specifically stated ABC will not allow them to fill more than three months worth at a time.

A few years ago I filled all my prescriptions and then went off on holidays and forgot to take one of them with me. I realised this the first night in Banff so I contacted the nearest pharmacy associated with mine in Calgary and between them they had to contact the specialist and ABC to get special permission to issue me with two weeks worth of pills. It took a couple of days to get through the red tape but it did get done.

If your pharmacy will do more then three months worth then good for you but it's not the norm.

It's not deductible against personal income taxes, the T1 guide specifically says they are not included. But if you are self-employed you can put it down as an employee benefit.

The one that always gets me is the tax deduction (line 330, schedule 1) if your costs are over a specific amount and I've never qualified for it since I've lived here and my income has been up and down like a yo-yo.

It always seems to me that they have worked out the average cost a diabetic pays followed by the average salary you get and that's where they peg the tax credit.

But the question is how would they know what a three-month supply is? Different people use different amounts. I guess because I'm diabetic the amounts people use can vary widely so it never comes up as an issue. I can understand why if you walked in and ordered a truckload they would turn you down. But I don't use the same pharmacy either, I shop around so that makes it harder for ABC to keep track I guess.

I think we are talking apples and oranges here. My GP has given me a repeat prescription that lasts for 3 years. ABC will only allow the pharmacy to dispense a max 3 months at a time.

We phoned Revenue Canada (or whatever they call themselves this week) a few years back to ask about this and you can claim any premiums "you" pay for additional health insurance, you can also claim any unpaid portion of any drugs or services covered by your additional plan.

You were not allowed to claim Alberta Healthcare premiums when they were around.

It states on the receipt that is sent to the insurance company the amount of pills and the daily dosage, it's not hard to figure out.