By Madeleine Maltese
On your prescription receipt at the pharmacy, there’s this little column called Coast. What is coinsurance?
In Quebec, everyone must have drug insurance. It’s the law. Therefore, you are covered by the RAMQ plan or by a private method (that of an employer, for example). And since you are insured, part of the cost of your medication is covered by your insurance. The rest is payable out of pocket. That’s precisely what coinsurance is.
The term coinsurance (or co-payment) is used in the insurance industry to indicate that certain costs are shared between the insurer and the insured. Applying coinsurance is one of the most common ways to limit insurance plans’ costs – medical or dental. Coinsurance refers to the part of the bill you have to pay yourself – it is calculated as a percentage but will be expressed in dollars on your account at the pharmacy.
In other words, if your insurer requires a coinsurance of 20% for prescription drugs (RAMQ is set at 32%), this means that you will have to pay 20% of the cost of your medications out of pocket.
