The Alberta government will restore some coverage for seniors who use the services of a chiropractor, but local advocates would like to see more funding put into physiotherapy.
Health Minister Fred Horne announced Thursday that the government will now cover the partial costs of visits to a chiropractor for roughly 450,000 seniors, a pledge he said the government made in the 2012 budget, passed just before the April provincial election.
“These services had previously been covered under Alberta Blue Cross for seniors,” Horne said. “We made the decision to reinstate them.”
Seniors enrolled in the Coverage for Seniors health benefit plan will now receive $25 per visit to a chiropractor to an annual maximum of $200.
“We want to help seniors live independently, help them remain mobile and flexible and if we want them to be independent, we have to provide that support,” Horne said.
Chiropractic services for all Albertans were delisted by the province in 2010, said Horne’s press secretary Bart Johnson. The new chiropractic coverage will take effect July 1.
“I think it’s significant assistance,” Horne said. “There are about 450,000 seniors eligible for this. There’s lots of people who want access. It’s a way to provide them with some access.”
Don Richards, chair of the St. Albert chapter of Seniors United Now (SUN), said the news is welcome.
“I think that a lot of people will be happy with that,” Richards said. “Some will be able to take advantage of that and go get the kinks worked out.”
Richards also said he would like to see senior citizens’ coverage for physiotherapy restored because seniors need physiotherapy treatment more often than they do chiropractic services.
“I know some that go to chiropractors regularly and I think some of them get what is almost physiotherapy from chiropractors,” Richards said.
Before the Ralph Klein-led health-care cuts of the early 1990s, seniors had almost unrestricted coverage to physiotherapy services if a doctor wrote a prescription for such treatment.
Seniors’ eligibility for coverage for physiotherapy is now limited to a specific number of visits, after which the patient is responsible for paying for any future treatment. Richards said his last visit to the physiotherapist cost him $60 for 45 minutes of treatment.
“A lot of people have found they would really like to have physiotherapy coverage back,” he said.
