A federal pensioner suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and her husband were at the end of their patience and had been unable to get their medication reimbursed by their Canada Life insurance for three months.

“We have to pay almost $3,700 for medicines while we are entitled to 80% reimbursement,” sighs Gilles Bérubé, who is covered by the insurance of his wife Nicole Audant, a Commission des parolees pensioner from Canada.

“So my wife also suffers from Alzheimer’s in the early stages,” whispers her partner.

Two years ago, Canada Life, owned by Power Corporation and controlled by the Desmarais clan, won a $515 million contract to manage the Public Service Health Care Plan.

Since this transition from Sun Life to Canada Life on January 1st^um last July, The newspaper is inundated with stories from disgruntled pensioners who say they are going through an ordeal.

Endless waits on the phone, shaky communication, nerve-wracking paperwork… many federal retirees who were used to everything running smoothly with their previous insurer, Sun Life, feel like they’re starring in a bad movie with their new insurer, Canada Life.

Visit to their offices

At NewspaperGilles Bérubé says he even went so far as to show up at the insurer’s offices in Montreal with his sick wife to try to make things happen, to no avail.

“We personally went to the Canada Life offices on René-Lévesque Ouest twice. There was almost no one there. “The offices were almost empty,” he denounces.

“We were completely sent away,” says the man, who finds it difficult to find these thousands of dollars more in his budget.

Canada Life declined to grant an interview Newspaper, On Tuesday, the company declined to answer questions about Mr. Bérubé’s case for confidentiality reasons, but the company said it wanted to help him resolve his case.

Still problems

At the end of July, the Bloc Québécois condemned the situation Newspaper by “accusing the federal government of committing one fiasco after another.”

The Treasury Board Secretariat (SCT) assured that the plan’s 375,000 Quebec civil servants and pensioners “continue to be protected and…” [que] Your claims are being processed.”

“We recognize that some participants may have difficulty reaching Canada Life during this extensive transition period. The Government of Canada, including the Minister [Mona] Fortier, president of the Treasury Board, speaks regularly with senior management at Canada Life,” TBS said.

However, disgruntled pensioners have continued to write in recent days Newspaper complain about their treatment. Senate staff also said they had experienced stories similar to those reported on our pages.

“Customer service is truly the biggest problem with this company. In total I must have spent around 20 hours on the phone since July, so 19.5 hours on hold!!! », one of them complained.

French speakers are punished

Yvon Barrière, regional vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada-Quebec, says retirees who are at the end of their tether should alert their federal MP every time they have trouble electrocuting the political machine.

“We receive a lot of complaints. We requested a meeting with the Ministry of Finance as soon as possible, but they refused,” he explained.

According to the senior union leader, the service is completely inefficient and waiting times create major problems that continue to exist.

“French speakers have difficulty filling out forms that come back in English. “We have many people who have to apply for new medical papers even though they have been receiving their medication without any problems for decades,” emphasizes Yvon Barrière.

“This is not the first time that the federal government has had difficulties with its contracts,” he concluded.

-In collaboration with Nicolas Brasseur