Ontario health minister resigns to lead discussion on national pharmacare plan
OTTAWA Tuesday’s federal budget will establish a national advisory group with former Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins at the helm that will work towards setting up a Canadawide pharmacare plan, sources say.
Hoskins himself dropped a major clue about the nolonger-so-secret plan Monday when he abruptly resigned both his cabinet position and his seat in the provincial legislature, saying he was leaving “to continue building better health care for all Canadians” and that his “path and journey will become clearer in the days ahead.”
In conversations with The Canadian Press, senior government officials — speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters not yet made public — confirmed both the plans for a national pharmacare effort and the fact Hoskins will play a leading role.
They say the government hopes to have a plan that can be implemented in next year’s budget, just in time for the 2019 election — likely an effort to outflank the upstart NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who has promised to make national pharmacare one of his central priorities.
Hoskins’ role as Ontario health minister has given him credibility with the provinces, which should come in handy in guiding discussions among a group of governments that has never been able to agree about what prescription drugs should be covered.
Organizations such as the Canadian Labour Congress have been urging the federal government to lay out a timeline during which they will work with provinces and territories to “design and implement a universal, comprehensive, national public prescription drug program that covers all Canadians.”
In its pre-budget recommendations, the congress said the country’s current system is an inefficient, expensive patchwork that has left 3.5 million Canadians unable to afford the medication they need. The group says Canada is the only developed country in the world with a universal healthcare program that doesn’t include a universal prescription drug plan.