BAGUIO CITY – Senior citizens in the city were elated after the health department order the scrapping of the purchase booklets to be able to avail of the prescribed 20 percent discount in the purchase of their medicines from drug stores around the country.
The elderly consider the latest issuance by the health department as a breakthrough in their long standing clamor for the government to scrap the requisite purchase booklets to avail of the senior citizens discount in the purchase of their medicines.
Further, some of them considered the said order as a timely Christmas present to them, especially during the present difficult times.
Health Secretary Teodoro J. Herbosa on Monday said purchase booklets are no longer required for senior citizens to avail 20 percent discount on medicine purchases.
Herbosa has signed Administrative Order No. 2024-0017 removing the need for seniors to present a purchase booklet to drugstores together with a valid identification card and a doctor’s prescription to get the discount.
“I am also a senior citizen. I know it is hard to always bring a purchase booklet with you. Seniors need the discount on their medicines, and we must make it easy for them to get that,” he said in a statement.
Consistent with Republic Act 9994 or Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, some provisions of AO No. 2010-0032 and AO No. 2012-0007 were also revised.
All other provisions of both administrative orders unaffected by the issuance remain in effect.
Earlier, the House of Representatives approved and adopted Baguio Rep. Mark Go’s Resolution 2031 urging the health department to immediately remove the purchase slip booklet as a requirement for purchasing medicines for senior citizens.
Go claimed that the requirement of a purchase booklet burdens senior citizens in claiming their much deserved 20 per cent discount on medicines and other health-related goods and services.
With the earlier adoption of the said resolution, the health department was instructed to review and revise its administrative orders relative to senior citizens discounts, removing the purchase booklet requirement for senior citizens.
On the other hand, persons with disability (PWDs) are also clamoring for the removal of the requisite purchase booklet for them to be able to avail of the prescribed similar discount when purchasing their medicines in the different drug stores in the city.
The PWD sector stipulated that they are in a similar situation with the senior citizens, thus, the need for the health department to consider their plight that the required purchase booklet should also be removed when they purchase their medicines considering that most of the time, they tend to leave the said purchase booklets in their residences or workplaces which often deprives them the chance to avail of the prescribed discounts that would mean a lot to them in terms of the money they will use for their other basic needs. By Dexter A. See
