I've always told myself that I can't wait to become a Senior Citizen in the Philippines and retire to the privileges of the Senior Citizen's Card. I have free movies, free public transportation, discounted airfare and 20% off on all my OTC and prescription medicine. Congress passed it and said so. Yipee!

But now drugstores are complaining, in fact, they're threatening:

“We have no choice but to increase the prices of medicines. We will go bankrupt and eventually close shop if the government will continue to carry out the law. We find the 20-percent discount unaffordable, unjust and unreasonable. This unfair law penalizes drugstores willing to give consumers lower prices,”

Healthcare is of course horribly tricky, and this is government passing on the cost of healthcare onto these private businesses. Indeed generics are one thing, as the article pointed out, but a discount on the branded meds really eats into your profits, especially if you start abusing your card (which is to be expected). I wonder if the drug giant Mercury Drug, who can absorb the 20% discount in their deep balance sheet, supported this bit of legislature to help them clean out the countryside of small drug stores.