14-04-2012, 01:53 AM
Bryony,
I should have used the word ’listed’ rather than ’approved’ for eplerenone.
CEPAC. Constitutionally, health services in Canada are the responsibility of the provinces, but since the Federal government provides a lot of the financing, it has a fair amount of clout and requires the provinces to provide primary medical and hospital care (as well as to see that people are not provided privately with these primary services outside those provide by their provincial health services). “Pharmacare” is not one of the required services. It is open to the provinces to provide additional services and most if not all do provide some drug coverage to elderly, disabled and low income people. The drugs covered seem generally follow the CEPAC list or a subset of it, but sometime additions are made in response to public outcry. In my province, all that is provided to seniors other than those with very low incomes is effectively a membership in a group policy with a commercial insurance company with a high monthly premium and a substantial co-pay. Even for me, it is simply not worth the money.
I had looked up some Canadian on-line pharmacies, but all that I checked said that eplerenone was “not available”. I suspect that in view of the narrow application for which it is approved in Canada, it is used mainly in hospital cardiac wards, and that there is little or no retail market. It is interesting that the CEPAC document gives the relative costs per day of spiro and eplerenone as 7c and $2.49 respectively, a mind boggling difference particularly since prices in a retail pharmacy would be significantly higher.
I have been trying to persuade my medical advisors that the excessive number of prescription medications I take each day should be reduced. As I see it, both the spiro and the beta blocker could probably be dispensed with. Even if my blood pressures rise, I have nearly 20mm in hand below the top of the ideal range. For the first two years after my heart failure episode I was not on a beta blocker at all while under the care of a highly regarded cardiologist, and I believe that it was the exponential 16 fold escalation of my initial beta blocker dosage after moving here that put paid to my erectile function, so I didn’t then object to the spiro although I knew it was used for chemical castration and by transitioning transexuals. The beta blocker has already been reduced 75% by the NP, and I am now inclined to think that the long term continuance of the spiro was simply an error.
Sorry to ramble on, but thanks again for your interest. I would never have heard of eplerenone if it hadn’t been for you, and it could have been important.
BTW, I forgot to mention that I don’t think I can have taken E2 for more than ten days at most.
I should have used the word ’listed’ rather than ’approved’ for eplerenone.
CEPAC. Constitutionally, health services in Canada are the responsibility of the provinces, but since the Federal government provides a lot of the financing, it has a fair amount of clout and requires the provinces to provide primary medical and hospital care (as well as to see that people are not provided privately with these primary services outside those provide by their provincial health services). “Pharmacare” is not one of the required services. It is open to the provinces to provide additional services and most if not all do provide some drug coverage to elderly, disabled and low income people. The drugs covered seem generally follow the CEPAC list or a subset of it, but sometime additions are made in response to public outcry. In my province, all that is provided to seniors other than those with very low incomes is effectively a membership in a group policy with a commercial insurance company with a high monthly premium and a substantial co-pay. Even for me, it is simply not worth the money.
I had looked up some Canadian on-line pharmacies, but all that I checked said that eplerenone was “not available”. I suspect that in view of the narrow application for which it is approved in Canada, it is used mainly in hospital cardiac wards, and that there is little or no retail market. It is interesting that the CEPAC document gives the relative costs per day of spiro and eplerenone as 7c and $2.49 respectively, a mind boggling difference particularly since prices in a retail pharmacy would be significantly higher.
I have been trying to persuade my medical advisors that the excessive number of prescription medications I take each day should be reduced. As I see it, both the spiro and the beta blocker could probably be dispensed with. Even if my blood pressures rise, I have nearly 20mm in hand below the top of the ideal range. For the first two years after my heart failure episode I was not on a beta blocker at all while under the care of a highly regarded cardiologist, and I believe that it was the exponential 16 fold escalation of my initial beta blocker dosage after moving here that put paid to my erectile function, so I didn’t then object to the spiro although I knew it was used for chemical castration and by transitioning transexuals. The beta blocker has already been reduced 75% by the NP, and I am now inclined to think that the long term continuance of the spiro was simply an error.
Sorry to ramble on, but thanks again for your interest. I would never have heard of eplerenone if it hadn’t been for you, and it could have been important.
BTW, I forgot to mention that I don’t think I can have taken E2 for more than ten days at most.