Booklets for meds no longer required for seniors - DOH

Senior citizens are no longer required to present the purchase booklet to avail themselves of 20-percent discount when buying medicine, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said yesterday.

- By SHEILA CRISOSTOMO

Through Department of Health (DOH) Administrative Order 2024-0017, Herbosa allowed the removal of such a requirement provided for under the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.

“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.

Herbosa called his directive a “gift of convenience and more affordable medicines to all of our senior citizens ... on behalf of President Marcos.”

Under the AO, senior citizens no longer need to present a purchase booklet to drugstore, along with valid identification and a doctor’s prescription, in order to get a 20 percent discount. Rep. Rodolfo Ordanes, chairman of the committee on senior citizens in the House of Representatives, lauded Herbosa’s initiative.

“Thank you very much for the action, DOH, on behalf of all senior citizens nationwide,” said Ordanes, a member of the House’s committee on health.