Friends of Medicare wants push for national drug plan
A national pharmacare plan was first discussed in Canada way back in 1964, but there is reason to believe we are closer to achieving that goal, says Friends of Medicare.
There has been a push from some political ministers to achieve this and a change in provincial governments in both Alberta and B.C. has helped, said Trevor Zimmerman, communications officer for Alberta Friends of Medicare, who addressed an audience in Medicine Hat on Tuesday evening. There is growing support from all political parties on Parliament Hill as well, he added.
Canadians pay the second highest price in the world for brand-name pharmaceutical medicines and the highest for generic medicines, according to a paper on a national public drug plan by the Canadian Health Coalition, which was distributed at the meeting.
One of the possible explanations is that higher prices paid would see pharmaceutical companies invest more profits in research and development, said Zimmerman.
In 2014 though, research and development investments by pharmaceutical companies hit an all-time low of 4.3 per cent, says the CHC paper.
Zimmerman pointed out there are some medicines developed in Canada that are significantly cheaper to buy in New Zealand than they are here.
The estimated cost of introducing a national public drug plan would be about $16 billion, said Zimmerman. About $10.2 million is already spent annually by the private sector on drug coverage.
In 2014, $12.5 billion in prescription drug spending was paid by the public sector, representing an increase of 9.2 per cent over the previous year, according to the CHC.
A third of Albertans have no coverage for prescriptions. About one in 10 people say they can’t afford to get the drugs they have a prescription for and others are not taking the medication as prescribed because of the cost, said Zimmerman. They may skip doses and even a co-payment of as little as $2 has been found to deter people from filling a prescription.
“Canada has the second highest rate of people reporting they cannot afford to take their medications as prescribed,” says the CHC.
One suggestion at the meeting was that perhaps Alberta should set an example for the rest of the country and introduce a pharmacare program here if the federal government does not establish one soon.