AMONG the joys shared with age peers when dining, happens at paying time. That’s when we all whisk out our senior citizens cards.
When you’re alone, though, you forget. All those years of paying the exact amount can be difficult to unlearn. Most often, too, the establishment has no mechanism for giving refunds.
So I feel like kicking myself each time this happens, and instead resolve to do better next time.
Always a boon are honest and scrupulous establishments. For instance, the Laguna Garden at Cebu Business Park deducts first the VAT and then the senior citizens’ discount, often totaling 28 percent.
I still have to discover, though, the other benefits my fellow seniors have enjoyed. I’ve been told that some groups of friends regularly hit the cinemas once a week.
That’s when they view movies for free, not just the mandated 20 percent discount. Hubby, my brothers and I should try this really soon.
Meantime, my fellow seniors, we should be vigilant about the prices of medicine in drugstores. It’s unfortunate that the 20 percent discount does not yet apply to vitamins.
The underpinning seems to be that we should get sick first before we can enjoy the discount. Might this be the leverage between the pharmaceutical industry and the government’s reps, particularly the DOH?
Some private companies incentivize their employee’s health and wellness benefits. Sick leave credits can be converted into cash. Some place no limits on total credits earned or money equivalent accumulated.
Similarly, why not incentivize senior citizens’ health and wellness by applying discounted rates as well for vitamins? Isn’t prevention always preferred to cure?
Since that’s not yet possible, then let’s monitor the medicine prices. One, use the drugstores’ competition for your benefit. Canvass first before buying.
Two, even within a chain of drugstores, the prices for a particular medicine or even equipment are not the same.
About two years ago, while canvassing for a wheelchair of the same design, maker, look, material and features, I noticed that one such unit at the Rose Pharmacy in Robinson’s Cybergate cost almost P2,000 lower than those at its branches in Aniceta Building near Cebu Doctors’ Hospital, and in SM City.
Three, don’t be hoodwinked by the seeming generosity of some drugstores. One drugstore near the University of San Jose-Recoletos has long lines of customers waiting to be served.
You present your senior citizen card, the purchase booklet and the patient’s authorization letter. There’s no need, they say, because all their medicines are practically priced equivalent to senior citizens’ discounts.
Offhand, you appreciate the hassle-free approach. But the more discerning tell you, you’re actually being gypped.
For instance, every tablet of Coveram at this particularly unscrupulous drug store costs P39.70. Yet, that price is actually higher by 30 percent than elsewhere.
At the Rose Pharmacy Cybergate outlet, for instance, such tablet costs only P30.43. This, after deducting from its P42.60 regular price the amount for VAT, and then the 20 percent senior citizens’ discount.
Imagine your savings if these meds are prescribed for the rest of your natural life.
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)