November 2, 2023 – National pharmacare for Canada needs to get back on track, according to a former Health Canada official speaking at a recent C.D. Howe Institute event.
In “National Pharmacare – Time to Get on With It,” Marcel Saulnier examines progress on implementing improved coverage for prescription drugs for Canadians and the four key elements needed to help it move forward.
Since the Advisory Committee on Implementation of National Pharmacare’s roadmap to implementing national universal pharmacare was published over four years ago, only some foundational steps towards national pharmacare have been taken. These include a transition office for the set up of the Canadian Drug Agency; a framework for a national formulary for listed drugs from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health; $1.5 billion in funding for a rare disease drug strategy; and a pilot initiative worth $35 million over four years has been launched with PEI to expand its drug program.
In his talk, published as a Verbatim by the C.D. Howe Institute, Saulnier explains that the imperative to move forward with this plan has become even more pressing as Canadians without adequate coverage struggle to pay for their drugs encounter high inflation and the rising cost of living, and as health systems stretched to the breaking point seek ways to keep patients healthy and out of emergency rooms.
But to get national pharmacare back on track, inconvenient truths also need to be acknowledged, said Saulnier. Some of these include Canada’s balance sheet being in much worse shape than before the pandemic, significantly reducing the fiscal room available to fund national pharmacare; limits to how prescriptive the federal government can be in an area of provincial jurisdiction; and provinces that are reluctant to make significant changes due to their current approach to drug coverage.
Saulnier says successful implementation of national pharmacare will require four key elements: 1) new federal investments to scale up the approach taken in PEI by offering all provinces a set amount targeted and tied to specific improvements in public plan coverage; 2) aspirational federal legislation that outlines the vision of national pharmacare; 3) establishing national minimum standards for all public and private drug plans to strive for; and 4) strengthening Canada’s fragmented approach to pharmaceutical decision-making.
For more information contact: Marcel Saulnier, Senior Fellow, C.D. Howe Institute; Associate, Santis Health and a former Associate Assistant Deputy Minister of the Strategic Policy Branch at Health Canada; or Lauren Malyk, Communications Officer, C.D. Howe Institute, 416-865-1904 Ext. 0247, lmalyk@cdhowe.org