All-party panel recommends universal pharmacare
OTTAWA • The federal government should expand Canada’s public health-care system to provide universal coverage of prescription drugs, according to a report from the parliamentary health committee tabled Wednesday.
The recommendation comes after the government signalled its interest in national drug coverage with the creation of an advisory panel on pharmacare in February.
“Will we save money and will we have better health care with a national pharmacare program?” Liberal MP Bill Casey said as he tabled the report, titled Pharmacare Now: Prescription Medicine Coverage for All Canadians. “The answer is ‘Yes, we will.’ ”
The committee’s majority report, tabled after two years of committee hearings and testimony from 99 witnesses, concludes that a universal drug plan will “ensure that all Canadians have equitable and affordable access to life-saving prescription drugs. In short, it will save money and lives.”
It recommends creating a national drug formulary, expanding the Canada Health Act to include prescription drugs, and providing additional health transfer dollars to the provinces and territories to cover the cost.
The report refers to a recent study from Canada’s budget watchdog that calculated a national drug program would save the country $4.2 billion annually compared to what is currently spent on prescription drugs by governments, private plans and individuals, because of Ottawa’s ability to negotiate lower prices.
But it also finds that governments will likely assume roughly $10.7 billion in costs borne by private insurers before those savings are realized.
It recommends that costs be shared between federal, provincial and territorial governments, but it doesn’t specify how those costs should be split.
The report also recommends the government consult with employers, unions and private insurers about how to pay for the program. During hearings, it was suggested that corporate taxes could be increased to help finance the program, with the costs offset by employers’ savings on private drug plans.
Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said prescription drugs are the fastest-growing payroll cost employers are facing.
“They have no control over medication costs right now,” he said. “Any employer will tell you that to have a national formulary … will certainly be huge for them.”
Liberal, Conservative and NDP committee members agreed on the need for improvements to drug coverage. But in a supplementary report, the Conservatives expressed concern about the cost of a universal program and the impact on private insurers.
Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu said many Canadians who currently have private coverage may not want a public plan.
“I’m not convinced yet that the 80 per cent of Canadians that have coverage want to switch,” she said.
But Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, said she’s convinced Canada will adopt a universal plan.
“We know the system is broken and has a direct impact on patients, but it has also a direct impact on the health-care system,” she said.
In February, the federal government announced the creation of an advisory panel on pharmacare, to be chaired by former Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins. The panel has until the spring of 2019 to provide the government with options for implementing a national program.
Though the committee’s report clearly recommends a universal program, Finance Minister Bill Morneau has implied he favours a program that would only cover Canadians who currently lack private drug coverage.
“We need a strategy to deal with the fact not everyone has access, and we need to do it in a way that’s responsible, that deals with the gaps, but doesn’t throw out the system that we currently have,” he said at the Economic Club of Canada in February.