National pharmacare plan would be welcomed by local Friends of Medicare

By Gillian Slade on February 28, 2018.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

The federal government will appoint advisers to a council under the direction of Ontario’s former health minister to explore options for a national program to cover the cost of prescription drugs, it was announced Tuesday.

Establishing a national pharmacare program would be a great moment in Canadian history, says Friends of Medicare.

“It is a very important historical moment. For the first time since Tommy Douglas talked about the first stage of medicare … now the second stage we are seeing movement on (this) and it is exciting,” said Sandra Azocar, executive director Friends of Medicare Alberta office. “It’s a win-win situation for Canadians.”

Canada has been the only universal health-care system in the world that has not included coverage of prescription drugs, said Azocar.

An estimated 10 per cent of Canadians can’t afford their prescription drugs each year, the Liberals say.

“We’re trying to get at this issue. It’s a really important issue,” Finance Minister Bill Morneau told a news conference Tuesday before the budget was tabled. “It’s, in our estimation, just not acceptable that a significant subset of the population doesn’t have access to pharmaceutical products.”

Morneau didn’t give a timeline on when the council, led by former Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins, will have to report its findings — fueling speculation that the Liberals plan to make pharmacare a centrepiece of its 2019 election campaign and take away a key talking point for NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

“National pharmacare is a common sense and long overdue measure that will be good for patients, good for public health care, and good for taxpayers,” Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union, said in a press release.

Hoskins has already shown effective leadership in improving prescription drug coverage in Ontario with his landmark OHIP+ program and that makes him the right person for the job, said Silas.

The parliamentary budget watchdog has warned a national pharmacare program could cost $19 billion a year.

In contrast, a report commissioned by the CFNU says Canada has wasted $62 billion health-care dollars from 2006 to 2015 because it has not had a pharmacare program. A report by Carleton University professor Marc-André Gagnon found that universal pharmacare could generate savings of up to $11.4 billion annually, while simultaneously increasing access to health care and improving health outcomes.

For a pharmacare program to be effective it needs to provide full coverage, said Azocar. It is no good asking the patient to pay a percentage of the cost or to pay an amount per prescription item.

“There have been studies where they’ve looked at even a $2 co-payment as being cost prohibiting for people,” said Azocar.

A suitable pharmacare program would also need to include coverage of a comprehensive list of medicines.

“We need to have evidence-based medicines available to Canadians with efficacy and safety as top priority. Limiting drugs, at this point, I don’t think would be going far enough. This is an opportunity to get it right,” said Azocar.

We already have people being treated at emergency rooms or being admitted to hospital with ailments that could have been prevented if they could have afforded prescription medication, said Azocar.

“The downstream costs that we are looking at saving is potentially very high, by keeping people healthier and out of hospitals,” said Azocar.

Initial costs for pharmacare may be higher but the accrued savings down the road will be considerable as people take prescription medication as a preventative measure, she said.

— with files from The Canadian Press

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